Founded in New York in March of 1920, the Chamber was organized by Dr. H. Parker Willis, Editor for the Journal of Commerce. From this act, Dr. Willis created one of the oldest bilateral Chambers of Commerce in the United States.Since its inception, the Chamber’s mission is to foster and promote trade, commerce and investment, mutual welfare, and other business relations between the United States and the Philippines, and their respective peoples, and to serve those persons and organizations having financial, trade and professional interests in either or both countries.

If you are a business executive looking to do business with the Philippines, or have significant investments in the Philippines, joining the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce is essential.

(1947) PACC hosts The Honorable Elpidio Quirino, Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines at the Union Club in New York City. (center), (l-r) F.M. Satterfield, Treasurer, PACC, Vice President Quirino, C.A. Richards, President, PACC. As Vice President under the Roxas Administration, Quirino also concurrently held the positions of Finance Secretary and then Foreign Affairs Secretary. In 1949, Quirino was elected as the 6th President of the Republic of the Philippines.

(1958) PACC hosts a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City for H.E. Carlos P. Garcia, 7th President of the Republic of the Philippines. As president, he was instrumental in pursuing and implementing the “Filipino First” policy which was conceived to initiate economic independence and also bring back the pride of Filipinos in their country.

H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo - December 19, 2000 Societe Generale, SG Cowen Conference
Call.

H.E. Fidel V. Ramos during 1998 Chamber dinner in New York

Hon. Thomas C. Hubbard, U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines - January 18, 2000

Hon. Stanley Roth, Assist. Secretary of State for EAPA, US Dept. of State, December
14, 200

The Board of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) is pleased to announce the results of its 2009 Board elections, including the appointment of David T. Kinnear, CEO of Lisnagol Global Services as President of the Chamber. In doing so, the Board extends its warm thanks & appreciation to John Howley for his sterling contribution as President of the Chamber during 2008/9.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS

For the year 2009/10, following are the Board members:

Chairman - Richard Rosenberg, American Energy Systems
Co-Chairman - Andoni Yturralde, Merrill Lynch
President - David Kinnear, Lisnagol Global Services
Treasurer - John Howley, Davies Energy
Secretary - Alfred Madrid, AVM Consulting Services, LLC

Expressions of interest in supporting the Chamber and/or being considered for an elected position are always welcome and you are warmly invited to contact any of the Board members listed.

MEMBERSHIP

The Board has authorized a program to update current memberships and extend membership privileges through June 30, 2010 to those individuals and organizations renewing on or before April 15, 2009. Membership rates have been adjusted and simplified to encourage participation.

SPONSORSHIP

The Board also welcomes inquiries from prospective sponsors - an additional means to create valuable, added visibility for a member company.

OUTLOOK

In looking ahead, the Board is steadfastly upbeat on the business prospects of the Philippines and for the increase in business opportunities - fostered by dialog - between the US and the Philippines. Growth sectors such as outsourcing & energy provide a fresh vigor for the convergence of debate and networking that the Chamber creates - drawing on a rich history of being a catalyst and leader in trade dialog and development.

EVENTS

The Board confirmed its commitment to supporting business events & activities that promote US-Philippines dialog and professional networking. As such, the Chamber is supporting a Reception at the Philippines Center in New York on April 2, 2009 at 6-9pm.

WEBSITE, LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK & COMMUNITY

Members and friends are encouraged to visit the Chamber’s website at www.philamchamber.org and participate in online Chamber communities via LinkedIn and Facebook.

On behalf of the Board of the Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce

David T Kinnear
President

You Are Invited to Join Us for An Exclusive Cocktail Event
Recalibrate Global Services Strategies for Value and Efficiency

New York | April 2, 2009

C-level executives are looking for ways to navigate the impact of the current economic slowdown while striving to manage the usual operational challenges. More than ever, there is a need to focus on cost savings, increase value-adds and manage risks. With mounting pressures and unpredictable conditions, how will the forecast of an upward trend in 2009-2010 from the different research companies play out? Clearly, there is a need to recalibrate corporate America’s strategies to stay on the growth course or, for some, keep afloat. Frank Casale, CEO of the Outsourcing Institute, will discuss insights and perspectives. Details on this networking event can be found below.

Kindly confirm your attendance with the Philippine Trade & Investment Center, care of Sandra or Lina at email pticny@verizon.net, telephone (212) 575-7925 and fax (212) 575-7759.

Details April 2, 2009 6:00 p.m. at Philippine Center, New York City [Registration starts at 5:30 pm]

Insights and perspectives from Frank Casale, CEO of the Outsourcing Institute.

PROGRAM

6:00 pm Cocktail mixer

7:00 pm Remarks § Cecilia Rebong, Philippine Consul General § Josephine Romero, The Philippine BPO Council Head and Philippine Trade Representative

7:05 pm Introduction of New Personalities led by the Consul General Rebong - incoming Philippine Trade Representative & incoming Philippine American Chamber of Commerce President, David T. Kinnear

7:15 pm Insights and Observations led by Judy Arteche Carr, The BPO Council Technology Adviser and Frank Casale, CEO of the Outsourcing Institute. Frank Casale is founder and CEO of the Outsourcing Institute, the worlds largest outsourcing membership network with over 70,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1993 OI as its popular web site www.outsourcing.com have become the go to source for unbiased information, trends, best practices and networking.Featured on CNN and CNBC, Mr. Casale is a leading commentator on outsourcing issues by major business and news organizations including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, FORTUNE magazine and The New York Times.

7:40 pm Mixer

8:00 pm End of program (venue will be open till 9 pm so all are welcome to stay)

Founded in New York in March of 1920, the Chamber was organized by Dr. H. Parker Willis, Editor for the Journal of Commerce. From this act, Dr. Willis created one of the oldest bilateral Chambers of Commerce in the United States.Since its inception, the Chamber’s mission is to foster and promote trade, commerce and investment, mutual welfare, and other business relations between the United States and the Philippines, and their respective peoples, and to serve those persons and organizations having financial, trade and professional interests in either or both countries.

If you are a business executive looking to do business with the Philippines, or have significant investments in the Philippines, joining the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce is essential. Continue reading

“We believe in the Philippines and its future, we believe in the strength of its economy and, most of all, we believe in the capability, fortitude and goodness of the Filipino people. We call on the business community in the Philippines and the U.S. to continue to invest in the country and provide jobs. Whoever is responsible for the bombing, we cannot allow these terrorists to defeat us. If we work together, we will prevail.” said Butch Meily, Chamber president and an executive with PLDT, and Richard Rosenberg, Chamber chairman and president of Data Symmetry.

The Philippine American Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1920 and includes among its members some of the largest corporations in the United States.

Contact: Butch Meily
(0918) 915-6087, rsmeily@hotmail.com

Butch Meily, president of the Chamber, cited the closeness of Philippine-American ties over the years, calling the evening a “family affair.”

Philippine Finance Secretary Gary Teves said the Philippines aims to capture 10 percent of the global outsourcing business by 2010. Oscar Sanez, BPAP president, said this means potential revenues of $13 billion and 900,000 jobs, a huge jump from the 2006 estimate of $3 billion in revenues and 250,000 jobs.

Founded in 1920, the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce is one of the oldest bilateral business organizations in the U.S. and has played a key role in promoting Philippine business interests.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, GOOD EVENING. I’M BUTCH MEILY, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND I’D LIKE TO WELCOME YOU TO TONIGHT’S EVENT.

TONIGHT IS A FAMILY AFFAIR BECAUSE FOR A FILIPINO, IT OFTEN SEEMS THAT MUCH OF OUR HISTORY OVER THE LAST 100 YEARS HAS BEEN TOUCHED BY OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNITED STATES. WHEN YOU GREW UP IN MANILA, STREETS HAD NAMES LIKE TAFT AVENUE, DEWEY BOULEVARD AND MCKINLEY. THREE MILLION FILIPINOS LIVE AND WORK IN THE U.S. MANY OF OUR FATHERS OR GRANDFATHERS FOUGHT AND DIED SIDE BY SIDE WITH AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN WORLD WAR II.

IN FACT, ON A CLEAR DAY IN MANILA, YOU CAN SEE THE MOUNTAINS OF BATAAN AND THE ISLAND OF CORREGIDOR AND IT IS POSSIBLE TO IMAGINE THE CURL OF SMOKE AND THE RUMBLE OF CANNON FIRE RISING FROM THESE ANCIENT BATTLEFIELDS. THESE ARE THE TIES THAT BIND US.

IN 1920, A GROUP OF AMERICAN AND FILIPINO BUSINESSPEOPLE FOUNDED THE PHILIPPINE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. IT IS ONE OF THE OLDEST BILATERAL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS IN THE U.S.

THE CHAMBER HAS PLAYED HOST TO EVERY PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT SINCE ELPIDIO QUIRINO, INCLUDING THE FATHER OF OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT DIOSDADO MACAPAGAL. FOR ALMOST 90 YEARS, IT HAS PROVIDED A MEETING PLACE FOR PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND BUSINESS EXECUTIVES AND FOR AMERICANS WITH AN INTEREST IN THE PHILIPPINES.

IT CONTINUES TO PLAY THAT ROLE TODAY. THE OUTSOURCING FORUM WHICH MANY OF YOU JUST ATTENDED IS THE LATEST IN A SERIES OF BPO EVENTS ORGANIZED BY THE CHAMBER STARTING IN APRIL 2005. WE RECENTLY ASSISTED IN THE FORMATION OF THE BPO COUNCIL OF NEW YORK WHICH IS LED BY DAVID KINNEAR. THE BUSINESS PROCESSING ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES UNDER OSCAR SANEZ HAS BEEN A GREAT PARTNER AND HAS HELPED SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES.

AND THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT, THERE IS MUCH THAT IS POSITIVE ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES TODAY.

EVERY ORGANIZATION IS MADE UP OF PEOPLE. SO I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE MANY SUPPORTERS OF THE CHAMBER WHO MADE THIS EVENING POSSIBLE – RICHARD ROSENBERG, THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CHAMBER, JOANNE DE ASIS, THE HEAD OF OUR INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD, BILL FERGUSON OF CITIBANK, JOHN HOWLEY OF KAYE SCHOLER, ALFRED MADRID OF METRO BANK, BERT PELAYO OF FILIPINO REPORTER, BEN SANTOS OF UNITED STAFFING REMEDIES, MY FORMER BOSS LOIDA NICOLAS LEWIS, MY CURRENT BOSS MANNY PANGILINAN WITHOUT WHOSE INDULGENCE AND SUPPORT I WOULD NOT BE HERE, AMBASSADOR ROBERTO ROMULO AND TOMMY ALCANTARA TO WHOM I OWE A SPECIAL THANKS FOR MAKING THIS EVENT A REALITY, CONSUL GENERAL CECILE REBONG, MAE ERMITA, THE CHAMBER’S HARD-WORKING SECRETARY, AND JOSEPHINE ROMERO, THE TRADE REPRESENTATIVE HERE IN NEW YORK, WHO IS A REAL CREDIT TO DTI.

TONIGHT IS A SPECIAL OCCASION AND THE CHAMBER IS PROUD TO BE A PART OF IT. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MAY I PRESENT TO YOU THE PHILIPPINES’ LEAD TRADE NEGOTIATOR, A CHAMPION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS, AND SOMEONE WHO IT IS ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO WELCOME BACK TO NEW YORK, THE SECRETARY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY PETER FAVILA!

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo speaks to the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce at the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf Astoria in New York on Thursday, September 27, 2007.” “The President greets members at her head table at the dinner including Jeff Shaefer, vice chairman of Citibank, and other senior executives from various companies.”

Top BPO exec cites RP’s favorable business climate

NEW YORK (via PLDT) — The top executive of one of the world’s leading business processing outsourcing (BPO) firms on Wednesday cited the Philippines as the place to be for investors looking forward to cash in on business havens in Southeast Asia.

Kenneth Tuchman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TeleTech, one of the world’s leading BPO firms, described Teletech’s Philippine operations as his company’s “biggest success story.”

Tuchman made the glowing remarks on Philippine business conditions during the luncheon he hosted in honor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her economic team at the Louis Suite of the Waldorf Astoria Towers.

Invited to the noontime gathering were top leaders of US businesses, who had signified their interest in learning more about business prospects in the Philippines.

Also present during the luncheon-meeting were Finance Secretary MargaritoTeves, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Saying that Teletech’s Philippine investment has paid off handsomely, Tuchman urged his fellow American businessmen to explore the investment opportunities that abound in the country.

In her response, President Arroyo told the US business leaders that the Philippines offers an environment that is highly conducive to growth, citing the world-renowned reputation of the Filipinos as hardworking, easy to get along with, and versatility in the English language.
TeleTech first expanded into the Philippines in 2001. Since that time, the country has become TeleTech’s fastest-growing geography, boasting unprecedented growth from several hundred employees five years ago to 13,000 employees in 10 delivery centers today.
It is now the biggest BPO company operating in the country with the number of employees expected to reach 30,000 by next year.

TeleTech’s centers in the Philippines offer front-to-back-office business process support to Global 1000 clients. The company’s Filipino employees handle a variety of complex business transactions including technical support, claims and loan processing, online sales, and lifecycle customer management for leading companies in the telecommunications, retail, technology, insurance and financial services industries.

Welcoming the guests who were mostly CEOs, presidents, and managers of major American financial, banking, and investment companies based in New York, Consul General Cecilia Rebong said, “the reception is only our second offering since the creation of the Business Process Outsourcing Council one month ago, and the goal remains to be to facilitate dialog, information, and greater understanding of the Philippines Business Process Outsourcing sector among potential global partners.”

Ms. Houlton reported that among the U.S. companies to consider the Philippines as a top destination for their offshoring services are ACN (Accenture), Genpact, ICT (ICT Group, Inc.), TTEC (Teletec Holdings, Inc.), ETEL (eTelecare Global Solutions, Inc.), and PCPT (People Support, Inc.). Ms. Houlton said that these companies posted phenomenal revenue growths during the first quarter of 2007 from their offshore BPO/Contact Center operations.

The main speaker, Mr. Gary Reddick, Senior Vice President of AIG Worldwide Life Insurance and Chairman of the AIG Business Process Services Inc. (AIG-BPSI), shared why his company selected, and is now running a business process operation in, the Philippines. “By locating in the Philippines, we are able to leverage AIG’s strong local presence in an environment that is highly conducive to US-focused outsourcing operations,” he said.

AIG American General is the second largest life insurer in the United States. In 2002, it formed AIG-BPSI as a joint venture between AIG General and Philamlife, the largest and most diversified insurance company in the Philippines. AIG-BPSI was to provide outsourced backroom processing as well as contact center services to AIG and the latter’s various customers worldwide. AIG-BPSI launched full operations in January 2003. In April 2006, AIG American General completely bought out Philamlife interests in AIG BPSI.

Mr. Reddick also noted that AIG selected the Philippines because of the country’s advantages over alternative Asian sites: Labor costs equivalent to China; lower and more than stable than India; prevalence of spoken American English; cultural and social affinity with the U.S.; modern and stable infrastructure – water, power, roads, telecommunications; large pool of qualified college graduates seeking white-collar employment; access to specialized skills aligned with US professional standards (certified public accountants with generally accepted accounting practices; dentistry; medicine; law); government support and tax breaks for the industry; and more familiar environment for expatriate trainers and managers than other Asian alternatives. He added that having a local partner like Philamlife helped a great deal.

“The ‘advantages’ cited above by Mr. Reddick clearly show that the Philippines’ attractiveness as a BPO destination is no longer limited to cost-reduction but also to being able to provide global partners with a human resource possessing the right skill sets and competencies supported by a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure,” Consul General Rebong observed.

Other speakers for the evening were Mr. David Kinnear; Ms. Judy Arteche-Carr, executive board member of the Society of Information Management in New York; and Ms. Josephine Romero, Trade Representative of the DTI in New York. The latter announced the Council’s next events on June 20 and July 18 focused on IT services and legal outsourcing, respectively. The BPO Council was jointly established by government, through the Philippine Consulate and trade offices, and industry, through the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce in New York. END

(From left) David Kinnear; Judy Arteche-Carr, BPO Council IT Chair and Executive Board Member of the Society of Information Management, Consul General Cecilia B. Rebong; Gary Reddick, Senior Vice President, AIG Worldwide Life Insurance; Cynthia Houlton, Senior Analyst, RBC Capital Markets Corp.; Josephine Romero, Philippine Trade Representative to New York; and Rene “Butch” Meily, President, Phil-Am Chamber of Commerce-New York and an Executive in PLDT.

The guests listen intently to the presentations during the BPO Council networking forum and reception.

The speakers respond to questions during the open forum (from left: Ms. Cynthia Houlton and Mr. Mr. Gary Reddick and Mr. David Kinnear, 2nd from right), and Ms. Judy Arteche-Carr, far right, as the moderator.