February 4th, 2016 from 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Georgetown University – Business School – Rafik Hariri Building – Room 440 (4th floor)
37th and O St., N.W., Washington, DC 20007
ROUND TABLE: moderated by PABLO GATO, CEO at GATO Communications.
- MANUEL SÁNCHEZ, Managing Director at BlackRock – Washington D.C. Metro Area Renewables & Environment.
- Professor CHARLES SKUBA – Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University Washington D.C. Metro Area International Trade and Development.
- JOSE MONTERO – CEO | International Business | P&L Management | M&A | Revenue Growth Strategies | Global Market Development | Branding
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND THE ORGANIZATION USEC (US SPAIN EXECUTIVES COMMUNITY) DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF THE SPANISH COMPANIES IN THE US MARKET.
The event, a joint initiative between Georgetown University and the business organization USSEC, was held at the prestigious McDonough School of Business, located at the university capital campus in Washington, DC.
“Spanish business schools are among the best in the world and their graduates can compete internationally at the highest level”, said Charles Skuba, professor of International Business and Marketing at the Georgetown Business School.
Manuel Sánchez (currently managing director of the largest investment Company in the world, Black Rock) and José Montero (President of the business consulting company The Montero Group) completed the roster of panelists. Pablo Gato (journalist and President of Gato Communications, a communications consulting company) moderated the panel.
The event was attended by around forty professionals, both from Spain and the US. The focus of the discussion was the future of Spanish companies in the United States.
The US is a market of growing interest for Spanish corporations to the point that Spain has become of the largest foreign investors in this country. The US is the largest economy in the world, with a GDP of seventeen trillion dollars.
“Spain is ahead of even the US in specific sectors of the economy, such has infrastructures, financial services, energy of fashion. Spain is a world leader in these sectors and therefore its companies compete with a lot of success in the US market”, stated José Montero, who advises international companies how do to business in the US.
The corporate Spanish investment in the US is growing. However, it still only represents 4% of the total business volume of corporate Spain. 70% is focused in the European Union market.
“This is a natural evolution. Because of cultural proximity and language, the Spanish companies that wanted to do international operations expanded first to Latin America. After that, the investments went to the European Union market since Spain is a member. Now it is time for the next step, which is to penetrate the US market. This market brings great opportunities for long term investments”, said Manuel Sánchez.
All the panelists agreed that Spain must continue its efforts to boost its promotion as a country and thus assist the Spanish companies to compete internationally.
“Organizations such as USEC are valuable and USEC has to keep developing relationships and contacts to add value to the project” said professor Skuba.
Gonzalo García, President of USEC, encouraged Spanish executives and entrepreneurs to join the organization so the Spanish community is better represented.
