Chicago Speakers
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Courtney Fingar
Editor-in-Chief, fDi Magazine, Financial Times Group Courtney Fingar is the Editor-in-Chief of fDi Magazine, a specialist publication from the Financial Times, and the head of content for its associated data division, fDi Intelligence. In her role she oversees all elements of editorial production for the bimonthly magazine and its website, as well as editorial outputs for fDi Intelligence. She interviews political and business leaders at the highest levels about economic and investment issues, and has covered business stories in all major regions of the world. She has a special interest in post-conflict investment sparked by her on-the- ground reporting from Iraq in 2009-11. She is a popular panellist and moderator at international economic gatherings and has appeared on television and radio in dozens of countries as a commentator on international investment. Before joining fDi in 2004, she was Editor of Trade & Forfaiting Review, a trade finance magazine in London. She worked previously in Washington, DC. |
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Nikola Gruevski Prime Minister, Republic of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski was sworn in as the 7th Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia in August 2006. He is also Vice President of the Euro-Atlantic Council of the Republic of Macedonia, a position he has held since 2005. He has been leader of the ruling right-wing VMRO-DPMNE party since 2003. Previous positions include President of the State Securities and Exchange Commission (2000-02), Minister of Finance (1999-2002), Minister Without Portfolio and Minister of Trade (1998-99), and a President and Founder of the Broker's Association of the Republic of Macedonia. He has an MSc in Economics International Capital Market Qualification from the Securities Institute, London; and a degree in Economics from St. Clement Ohridski University, Bitola. from Ss Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje; International Capital Market Qualification from the Securities Institute, London; and a degree in Economics from St. Clement Ohridski University, Bitola. |
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Jerry
Naumoff Minister for Foreign Investments, Government of the Republic of Macedonia Jerry Naumoff became Minister for Foreign Investments in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia on May 29, 2013. Prior to his appointment he was the Founder & President of The Naumoff Group Inc, which was a total risk management advisory firm formed in the US in 1993. The Naumoff Group had a diverse group of internationally known and Chicago-headquartered corporate clients from a wide array of industries. As an entrepreneur he also imported mineral water from Europe, owned a restaurant and built one of the first web-based HR self-service applications that was later purchased by ADP. He gained marketing and management experience at two Fortune 500 financial insurance companies and two top-ranked Chicago-based brokerage/consulting firms between 1980 to 1993. Throughout his corporate career he was promoted numerous times and achieved many national sales production and office management awards. He was appointed “Advisory Council to the President” by the CEO of one of the largest financial companies in the world. Minister Naumoff is on the Board of Directors of two worldwide non-profit organisations focused on the economic development of Macedonia. In 2012 he was selected by United States Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) to serve on his European Advisory Board representing the Chicago area Macedonian-American community. Recently he was appointed Distinguished Fellow of New Westminster College, Vancouver, Canada. He earned a football athletic scholarship to study at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana and graduated with a BSc in Marketing and Business Administration. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio in a large immigrant family with roots from Gjavato, Macedonia. |
Frank Brandenberg Chairman and Director, KEMET Corporation Frank Brandenberg became Chairman and Director of KEMET Corporation in 2003. Before that he was a Corporate Vice President and Sector President of Northrop Grumman Corporation, from 2001 to 2003. Prior to joining Northrop, he was Senior Vice President and Group Executive of Litton Industries; President and CEO of EA Industries; and worked for 28 years at Unisys where his last position was Corporate Vice President and President, Client/Server Systems. Mr Brandenberg is the majority owner and the Chief Executive Officer of Auto-Lab Franchise Management Corporation, trading as Auto-Lab Complete Care Car Centers, a private company and franchiser of automotive repair and maintenance facilities; and a Partner in Trident Auto Services, LLC, a private company which owns and operates automotive repair and maintenance facilities. He also served as a director of American Mold Guard, Inc. from 2006 to 2008. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and a Masters of Science degree in Operations Research from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, and has completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School. |
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| Phil Gilbert Managing Director, P&M Corporate Finance Phil Gilbert is a Managing Director of P&M Corporate Finance (PMCF) and has more than 30 years’ professional experience in acquisitions, divestitures, capital raising, and joint ventures. His transaction experience spans the manufacturing and distribution industry with significant exposure to the automotive, aerospace and flow control segments. In addition to leading PMCF, he is a founder of Corporate Finance International, an alliance of investment banking firms throughout Europe, Asia and North America. His practice includes significant cross-border transaction activity, principally between North America and Europe. Prior to the formation of PMCF, Mr Gilbert was a partner with Plante Moran, PLLC. He earned a BBA in finance and economics from the University of Michigan and is a registered Certified Public Account (CPA). He has written numerous articles and is a frequent speaker to business media and organisations on various investment banking topics. |
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Viktor Mizo Chief Executive Officer, Free Zones Authority Republic of Macedonia Viktor Mizo has been the Chief Executive of the Macedonian Free Zones Authority since 2011, prior to which he was in charge of Invest Macedonia for more than four years. In his current role he is responsible for numerous greenfield investment projects by multinational companies that have located their production or service operations in Macedonia in the automotive, electronics, IT, agriculture, tourism/ hospitality and real estate sectors. These investments are worth more than $500m and will create more than 6,000 jobs. The Macedonian Free Zones are ranked among the top 50 free zones in the world by fDi Magazine. Mr Mizo started his career as a design engineer and a member of the Technical Leadership Program at General Electric where he worked on locomotive design that culminated in a Black Belt position in the Six Sigma quality initiative. He subsequently worked as a consultant in McKinsey’s New York office concentrating on technology and financial services. He co-founded a technology company that specialised in digital file distribution for 3G mobile phones in Japan and also participated in the founding and management of an internet start-up in the media and entertainment sector in London and New York. Mr Mizo graduated summa cum laude in Mechanical Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he also received his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He holds an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School. |
George Perry Automotive industry executive consultant and former CEO Yazaki North America George Perry is a consultant in the automotive industry, having previously being President and CEO of Yazaki North America from 2002 until his retirement in 2009. He joined YNA – part of the Yazaki Group, a Japanese automotive component maker – in 2000, and when he was appointed President and Chief Operating Office the following year he became the company’s first non-Asian president. Previously Mr Perry had been on the board of Siemens Automotive Corporation, where he was President and CEO from1993 to 1999. Over his long career in the automotive industry he has also worked for Allied-Signal, Bendix (now part of Continental) Renix (a Renault/Bendix joint venture electronics company), and Ford Motor Company which he joined in 1973. He started his career at Grumman Aerospace Corporation, in Long Island, New York, in 1966, where he was involved in every Apollo Program manned lunar landing. In addition to his role as a reliability engineer for the Lunar Module spacecraft, he served on both the mission support team and the flight anomaly investigation team during the latter stages of his Grumman career. Mr Perry is past chairman of both the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) and the Convergence Transportation Electronics Association (CTEA) and has served on the Supplier Council of each of the US domestic automakers during his career. He also served as a board member of Jobs for America’s Graduates and SAE’s Vision 2000. He is a Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) International Honor Award recipient, having been given the Donald C Burnham Manufacturing Management Award in 1997 for his leadership in the establishment of Bendix’s Newport News, Virginia, facility as a recognised world leader in fuel injector manufacturing. He has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he was born and raised. |
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| Mike Zafirovski Chairman and Co-Founder, Macedonia 2025 President, The Zaf Group Mike Zafirovski is a founder and president of The Zaf Group, a management consulting and investment firm. He is also an Executive Advisor to Blackstone, and serves on the board of directors of three of Blackstone’s portfolio companies: as a non-executive chairman of DJO Global and PGI, and as an independent director of Apria Healthcare Services. Since 2004, he has also served on the board of directors of Boeing, and since 2012, on the board of Stericycle. Previously, Mr Zafirovski has served as President and CEO of Nortel, the global communications technology company; President and COO of Motorola; and during a 25-year career at GE, served as President and CEO of five GE businesses in the consumer, industrial and financial services arenas. Among his education, civic and philanthropic activities, he is Vice Chairman of AUSL, the organization that helps turn around the most challenged public schools in Chicago. He is a visiting lecturer at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. A Macedonia native, he is a founding director and chairman of Macedonia 2025, an organization aiming to improve the country’s economic and democracy developments. He is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago and The Chicago Council of Global Affairs. From 2006 to 2010, Mr Zafirovski was a presidential appointee to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). NSTAC provides analytics and recommendations to the President on a wide range of policy and technical issues related to telecommunications, information systems, information assurance, infrastructure protection, and other national security and emergency preparedness concerns. He holds a BA in mathematics from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. |
