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Special Edition: International Show

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Jeff Hannah/Nuance International

Jeff Hannah is the President of Nuance International. He is also a leader, lecturer, consultant, and writer in the fields of international project management, budgeting, design, and cultures. With an accomplished track record of more than 20 years, Jeff has led large, multicultural teams in the strategic development, design, and management of complex projects in over 50 countries. He has managed companies in London, Abu Dhabi and Atlanta. He specializes in understanding the various cultural nuances and the distinct challenges to working in each region of the world and has developed methodologies and processes for mitigating those risks to deliver world-class solutions. Jeff earned his B.S. Degree in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bart Wigman/Gielissen Interiors & Exhibitions

Dr. Bart Wigman is the CEO of Gielissen Interiors & Exhibitions.

Pieter van der Toorn/Netherlands-American Chamber of Commerce

Pieter van der Toorn serves as the President of InterfaceSERVICES, a  subsidiary  of Interface, Inc., a world leader in the manufacture of  environmentally friendly  modular carpeting.  Pieter has been elected President of the Netherlands American Chamber of Commerce for the southeastern United States. A native of The Hague, The Netherlands, Pieter started his Interface career with Heuga, a Dutch carpet tile company that Interface, Inc. acquired in  1988.  He has served in a number of leadership positions in sales  and marketing with Interface and Heuga since 1987.   Most recently, he was  Senior Vice President of Sales for the U.S. modular business.  Pieter has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree from  Nijenrode, the Netherlands College of Business, and a Master’s degree in International Business Studies (MIBS) from the University of South Carolina. He earned his LEED® accreditation status in 2006 with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Pieter resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Deborah, and their two children, Megan and Nicholas.

Lilia Postolachi/WTC Atlanta

John Dickson/World Trade and Development Group

John Dickson is president of the World Trade and Development Group based in Columbia, Maryland. He has founded World Trade Centers in Okinawa, Afghanistan, and has secured a license for Shenyang and Qingdao, China. He is currently developing a WTC project in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. Mr. Dickson is the founding chairman of the World Trade Centers Association’s Committee on Peace and Stability through Trade which organized conferences highlighting the contribution of the private sector to peace and stability. Some of these were held in Geneva, Oslo and the UN Headquarters in New York. John created the first Forum on Globalization and Cultural Identity which became a series held at various venues throughout the world.

John is also active in many NGOs. He is a founder and serves on the executive council for the Native American Leadership Alliance. He is a troop committee chairman for the Boy Scouts of America. John also serves on the International Council of Business Beyond Borders headquartered in the Silicon Valley and he chairs the board of the China Society based in Washington DC. John is the advisor to the offices of private sector partnerships and government relations for the Global Peace Foundation.

John earned an undergraduate degree in architecture at Georgia Tech and earned a Masters of Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. He has a second-degree black belt in WonHwaDo Martial Arts. He has been married for thirty years and has five children.

Rick Woroniecki/Ackerman & Co. Commercial Real Estate

Richard C. “Rick” Woroniecki wears two hats; he manages bi-lateral trade with China and international investment in America. Mr. Woroniecki is Vice President of Brokerage Services at Ackerman & Co., a privately held, premier full-service commercial real estate company offering brokerage, development, management and investment services in the Southern United States. Presently, he handles retail, office and shipping/logistics property sales, and leasing.

 Rick is a seasoned professional whose long career in real estate development engineering and environmental consulting led to a keen interest in import/export. He is well-versed in the nuances of this business, having imported hardware and later consumer and medical products from China and Hong Kong for many years. In the past 10 years, Rick further increased his involvement with China imports and sourcing. With his partners, maintaining an office in Shanghai, he now provides import sourcing and logistics assistance to investors seeking to source products from China, as well as providing Chinese investors with acquisition and assistance in setting up operations in the USA for product sales and distribution.

A consummate networker, Rick is no stranger to the broader Euro-Asian and Latino-Hispanic leadership in the Southeast. He can assist bi-laterally with any investor need including real estate, product sourcing and logistics, customs, employment, legal, immigration, sales and income tax, and team up to provide turn-key support.