Wealth & Finance International | July 2017
Balanced and Comprehensive Range of Products C-QUADRAT is an international asset manager which was established in 1991 in Vienna by Alexander Schütz and Thomas Riess. We recently spoke with Alexander Schütz from C-QUADRAT to discover more. Also In This Issue... Countrywide Conveyancing Services / HADS Partnership Law Office / Luciano Ponzi Investigazioni / Levin Capital Strategies, LP / THEAM - BNP Paribas / Savant Systems LLC / Angel Capital Group / The Global Group / Dodhys Agencies / Adam Phones / CSM / Temple Spa / Infra Invest / COGENCY GLOBAL INC. / Bryn Mawr Bank Corp / Wienner & Gould, P.C.
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
Editor’s Comment
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Welcome to this truly captivating July edition of Wealth & Finance International magazine. In this issue, we discover more about C-QUADRART – the international asset manager which was established in 1991 in Vienna by Alexander Schütz and Thomas Riess. The C-QUADRAT team has made a name for itself internationally with its investment fund analysis and management activities. Elsewhere in this issue, on 24th July the Board of LXi REIT plc announced that it has exchanged contracts to provide forward funding for the development of a new Travelodge hotel, drive-through Costa coffee shop and drive-through KFC restaurant in Camborne, Cornwall.
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Finally, we learn more about how for almost 30 years, Adam Phones have been creating award-winning mobile and fixed line connectivity solutions for some of the most demanding clients and businesses in the world. We hope you thoroughly enjoy reading this issue. Jessica Daykin, Editor AI Global Media, Ltd. (AI) takes reasonable measures to ensure the quality of the information on this web site. However, AI will not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, correctness or completeness of any information that is available through this web site. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them. The information available through the website and our partner publications is for your general information and use and is not intended to address any particular finance or investment requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by us or any of our partner publications and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making or refraining from making any investment or financial decisions.
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Appropriate independent advice should be obtained before making any such decision. Any arrangement made between you and any third party named in the site is at your sole risk and responsibility.
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Factor Investing - Boosting Returns from Equity and Credit Markets THEAM - BNP Paribas 4. News 8. Balanced and Comprehensive Range of Products C-QUADRAT Investment AG 10. Developing Diverse Interests Global Group 12. Flexible and Fast, Concierge Style Service for Telecommunications Adam Phones 14. Professional Fraud Investigators Acting Globally Global Investigations 16. A Smart Move Savant Systems LLC 18. Seeking Value in a Passive World Levin Capital Strategies, LP 22. Vast Experience in Legal Marketing The Rainmaker Institute 24. Reliability, Earnestness & High Quality LUCIANO PONZI INVESTIGAZIONI 26. Formula 1 - Change and Opportunity in Motorsport’s Premier Series CSM 28. Bringing Property and People Together Countrywide Conveyancing Services 30. Your Body Is a Living Temple Temple Spa 32. Leading the Way in the Moroccan Infrastructure Finance Industry Infra Invest 34. Improving Healthcare in Pakistan Dodhys Agencies 36. The Realm of Investment Angel Capital Group 38. The Best-in-Class International Services COGENCY GLOBAL INC. 40. Thoughtful, Helpful and Personal Bryn Mawr Bank Corporation 42. The Complex Nature of Life Wienner & Gould, P.C. 44. A One-Stop Legal Service HADS Partnership Law Office 46. Best IT Executive Networking Solution 2017 IT4 CIO
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Wealth Wealth & Finance & Finance International International | News
Silicon Valley Family Office Association Launches as Networking Resource for Wealthy Families On July 18th, Family Office Networks announced the launch of a new division in the Silicon Valley led by local resident Sanjeev Chitre. The Silicon Valley Family Office Association (siliconvfoa.org) will serve one of the most intellectually astute family office regions in the country. The group is designed to serve the extremely accomplished single and multi-family office community by creating an environment in which to share intellectual capital, leverage their years of industry expertise, and bring unique industry-generated deal flow and opportunities.
Local Managing Director Sanjeev Chitre has 35+ years of experience and currently serves as Managing Partner of The U-Group. Mr. Chitre has had a tremendously successful industry career of starting, growing, and executing the liquidity of several major small and medium size companies. He founded The U- Group in 2004 as a strategic and M&A advisory firm focused on Exit-Engineered Execution including cross border leverage in transactions. The U-Group has successfully implemented several value- enhanced exits for medium sized technology firms through product, technology, market expansion, and financial repositioning in both domestic and global markets.
“Our worldwide network provides information, opportunities and investment resources to affluent families and individuals. We provide multi-generational support to family structures to ensure continued success and wealth preservation, including access to deal flow leveraged through local family office communities in 29 money centres around the U.S. and the world. We will offer our Silicon Valley members exceptional news, information, and other resources to help ensure that they are well-positioned for future success,� said Steve Saltzstein, founder and CEO of Family Office Networks.
The Silicon Valley Family Office Association is open to any family office operating within the local area. There will be numerous events, seminars, and special functions that take place throughout the year engineered to deliver the most pertinent information to assist family offices in reaching their goals. For information about joining the Silicon Valley Family Office Association at: siliconvfoa.org
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Gen X Homeowners Lag behind in Building Equity Gen X homeowners bore the brunt of the housing crash, and it still shows a decade later as they lag behind in gaining equity in their homes, according to the new Zillow Home Equity Report this month.
Millennials have almost as much equity as the older Gen X homeowners, despite having had much less time to gain equity. The Zillow Equity Report for the first quarter of 2017 tracks the home equity of more than 50 million homeowners who have a mortgage. The report, which will be released twice a year, tracks the debt that U.S. homeowners are carrying on their homes by age and location.
Gen X homeowners are doing particularly well in the Bay Area, where home values have grown about 75% over the past five years. San Jose is the only metro where mortgaged Gen X homeowners owe less than half of their homes’ value, and San Francisco homeowners are not far behind, owing 51.4% of their homes’ worth.
Highlights from the report: The median homeowner with a mortgage has $78,683 in home equity. Homeowners who own their homes outright typically have $177,158 in home equity. • The median homeowner has a loan-to-value ratio of 62.2, or owes 62.2% of their home’s current value. • 75.7% of homeowners have at least 20% equity in their homes, enough to cover the costs of selling or refinancing their home. • 5% of mortgaged homeowners are close to owning their homes free and clear. • 10.4% of mortgaged homeowners have negative equity. In the first quarter of 2012, 31.4% of homeowners were underwater. Among mortgaged homeowners, the typical millennial (less than 35 years old) owes the bank about 76% of their home’s current value. The median Gen X (35 to 50 years old) homeowner owes 70% of their home’s value. Boomers (50-65 years old) owe about 56% of their home’s value, and silent generation (65 and older) homeowners with a mortgage owe 45%. “Roughly half of American wealth is held in home equity,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. “Paying off the home mortgage is a key step toward retirement for most Americans, and it’s clear from these results that Generation X is further from that goal than older generations because of the Great Recession. The good news is that home values are still growing relatively fast in most places, building up home equity for homeowners who rely on the investment they’ve made in their home.” The difference in how much Gen X homeowners owe on their home loans is an example of how uneven the housing recovery has been across the country. In Baltimore, which has seen a sluggish recovery, Gen X owners with a mortgage owe a median of 79% of their homes’ value. In Chicago, where homes are still 15% below the highs reached during the bubble, Gen X homeowners owe 77.3% of their homes’ value.
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£6.1 Million Forward Funded Pre-Let Investment in a New Hotel, Coffee Shop and Restaurant Development The Board of LXi REIT plc on 24th July announced that it has exchanged contracts to provide forward funding for the development of a new Travelodge hotel, drive-through Costa coffee shop and drivethrough KFC restaurant in Camborne, Cornwall. The development represents an investment of £6.1 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.15% on the asset acquisition (net of acquisition costs to the company).
The property is well located directly fronting the A3047 Tolvaddon Road, 100 metres from the main A30 arterial highway. Camborne and nearby Poole and Redruth combine to form Cornwall’s largest conurbation and Camborne plays an important role to the wider catchment of the peninsula in providing housing, retailing and leisure facilities.
Upon practical completion, which is targeted for May 2018, the new development will comprise of: • A 63-bedroom hotel pre-let to Travelodge Hotels Limited, the principal trading company of the Travelodge group, the UK’s largest independent hotel chain with more than 520 hotels and over 38,000 guest bedrooms. This will account for 71% of the total rental income of the property on a new 25-year lease (with no tenant break right), subject to five yearly upward only, CPI-linked rent reviews (collared and capped at 0% p.a. and 4% p.a. compound); • An 1,800-sq. ft. drive-through coffee shop pre-let to Costa Limited, a subsidiary of Whitbread PLC, a FTSE 100 company with a market capitalisation of £7.1 billion. Costa is a leading operator of coffee shops, with 2,861 outlets across 30 countries. This will account for 12% of the total rental income of the property on a new 10-year lease (with no tenant break right), subject to five yearly upward only open market rent reviews (capped at 3% pa compound); and • A 2,950-sq. ft. drive-through restaurant pre-let to a leading KFC franchisee. This will account for 17% of the total income of the property on a new 20-year lease (with a break right at year 10), with upward only open market rent reviews.
The three tenant pre-lets have exchanged, full planning permission is in place and the company is acquiring the land and forward funding on a fixed-price basis. The developer will pay the company a licence fee during the construction period. The company is not developing the site or assuming development risk. The acquisition is being funded from equity resources, with senior debt finance to be introduced in the near term. John White, partner of LXi REIT Advisors Limited, commented: “We are pleased to provide the forward funding for this attractive long-let hotel and leisure development asset with a compelling initial yield, pre-let to tenants with strong covenants, and which adds further geographic diversification to the current portfolio.”
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Balanced and Comprehensive Range of Products C-QUADRAT is an international asset manager which was established in 1991 in Vienna by Alexander Schütz and Thomas Riess. We recently spoke with Alexander Schütz from C-QUADRAT to discover more.
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stablished in 1991, C-QUADRAT has grown from an Austrian fund boutique into a European asset manager. Its fund managers in Vienna, London and Yerevan use both quantitative and discretionary absolute and total return strategies. The C-QUADRAT team has made a name for itself internationally with its investment fund analysis and management activities. Many banks, insurance companies and financial service providers operating internationally rely on the expertise of C-QUADRAT as well as private investors.
“Founded in 1993, HNA Group has almost 410,000 employees worldwide, mainly in North America, Europe and Asia. Starting out as a regional airline in China’s Hainan special economic zone, HNA Group has developed in a group which operates worldwide. Its corporate value currently exceeds USD 90 billion, and its annual sales volume amounts to approximately USD 30 billion.
HNA Group’s management pursues a global growth strategy, focusing on the tourism, logistics and financial sectors.
The company has been listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange since 2006 and on the Vienna stock exchange since May 2008. Today, with offices in Vienna, London, Frankfurt, Geneva, Zurich, Madrid and Yerevan C-QUADRAT operates in more than 20 countries in Europe and Asia. When discussing the firm’s overall mission, Alexander explains how C-QUADRAT seeks to provide continuous and sustainable growth for its investors.
“Through C-QUADRAT, HNA Group also currently holds approximately 9.9% stake in Deutsche Bank – Germany’s largest credit institute. C-QUADRAT’s management board member, Alexander Schütz was elected to the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank at their Annual General Meeting on May 18, 2017.”
“C-QUADRAT’s fund managers in Vienna, London and Yerevan use both quantitative and discretionary absolute and total return strategies to achieve this goal.
In 25 years, the C-QUADRAT Group developed from an Austrian fund boutique, into a European player with offices in several countries. From the first small office in Vienna to London’s financial centre and all the way to Armenia. Highlighting how far the company has come so far, Alexander reflects on C-QUADRAT’s growth but also, the plans for the future.
“As an international asset manager, C-QUADRAT offers its investors a balanced and comprehensive range of products. A range of investment strategies and management approaches and, the expertise of various specialists guarantee a diversified product portfolio.” In 2017 HNA Group, the number 353 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, has acquired a consolidated shareholding of 9.9 per cent in C-QUADRAT. In May 2017, HNA Group announced, that the company is to increase its interest substantially. Subject to approval from all of the supervisory authorities, upon completion of the transaction it will hold a 74.8% shareholding in Cubic (London) Limited. The remaining shares in Cubic (London) will be retained by the company’s two founders Alexander Schütz and Thomas Riess, as well as its other current core shareholders. In turn upon completion of the transaction, Cubic (London) Limited will hold more than a 98% shareholding in C-QUADRAT Investment AG. As Alexander informs us.
“Since 2012, the team of the UK investment specialists, BCM & Partners has been sailing under the C-QUADRAT flag. Our experts for discretionary fixed income strategies carry out their business in a prime location in London, the world’s leading financial centre.
“HNA has an excellent track record for stimulating growth of the business it is invested in, and our partnership will open up further opportunities for the strategic expansion of our business segments, which include, but are not limited to, the vast Asian region.
“We want to gain a firmer foothold in the institutional segment. The same applies to our geographical positioning. We are doing quite well in Central and Eastern Europe. In this context, Asia is an important region for us.”
“Since 2013, C-QUADRAT Ampega Asset Management Armenia LLC is licensed as investment funds manager, by the Central Bank of Armenia. As one of two pension asset managers in the Armenian system, C-QUADRAT plays a leading role in the development of the local financial market, supporting the implementation of a pension reform and the development of asset management as well as investment services.
Company: C-QUADRAT Investment AG Web Address: www.c-quadrat.com 8
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Developing Diverse Interests The Global Group is a venture capital, investment and strategic consultancy company, with a global outlook and a special focus on China and the UK. We invited Global’s Founder and Chairman, Dr. Johnny Hon to tell us more about this successful company.
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he Global Group has developed diverse interests, ranging over banking, property development, financial services, education, media, entertainment and leisure, sports, gaming, telecoms, mining, biotechnology and much more.
It is no secret that behind every successful company is a group of dedicated, talented and innovative individuals. As for the Global Group, Johnny praises his passionate staff: “Our internal culture is one of hard work, excellence and service to the client. We do this by working as a team. Our people care about each other; they work with one another rather than against each other. Above all, I try to cultivate this by setting a positive example in everything I do and by being always accessible.”
Dr. Hon explained to us how the company helps their clients to invest and how it invests itself, both alongside its clients and independently. He also explained Global’s mission, the steps they take to achieve it, as well as their approach to client service.
Looking ahead, Johnny reflects on the company’s success over the last 12-months and highlights what the future holds for the Global Group. As for the wider industry, he discussed with us what developments he foresees, as well as offering words of wisdom to younger generations:
“At the Global Group, we have introduced many UK companies to the opportunities in China and we have helped a number of Chinese companies to list in the UK and elsewhere. Also, we have brought UK and Chinese companies together to co-invest in third markets. As for our clients, they are varied - they include well-established firms, start-ups, and our Family Office division caters to the needs of high net worth individuals and distinguished families. Currently, our headquarters are based in Hong Kong and our London office is also extremely important to our work.
“Brexit will pose a certain challenge to the position of the City of London. A range of other European cities will benefit from this. However, I believe that overall the City will remain Europe’s greatest financial centre. China and China-related plays will continue to offer the greatest opportunities in the global economy. London will be in the forefront of those, for example with renminbi internationalisation. Our company was pointing these trends out long before they were fashionable or widely accepted. Adaptation is something we all have to do from time to time, but fundamentally, for our part, we are looking at continued development.
“The Global Group’s mission is a little complicated. Of course, like all similar companies we seek to make the maximum profits, within ethical guidelines, both for ourselves as well as for our clients and investors. However, we also seek to contribute to better relations between China and the UK, and to help developing countries to build their economies and improve their people’s standard of living. Our aim is to achieve all this by doing our homework thoroughly, working closely with all stakeholders and partners at every stage, by being ready to grasp new opportunities and by working harder than everyone else.
“This has been a good year for us. We have developed rapidly and delivered for the company and for all our partners and clients. “One thing we have done successfully, and enjoyed hugely, this year and last, is to revive such classic musicals as Sunset Boulevard and 42nd Street, both in London’s Theatreland and on Broadway in New York.
“It may sound like a cliché, but to us the client really is King. We are learning and refining this constantly, especially through our family office division. Not only do we identify their needs and opportunities and work with them closely through every stage, but we also ensure that our team members are all experts in their respective fields and that we cover all the angles.”
“I’d like to offer a word of advice and encouragement to young, aspiring business leaders and entrepreneurs: You need to have the resilience, faith and willpower to fail in some of your initial attempts, but to always pick yourself up and come back stronger, wiser and more determined. As the old saying goes: ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.’ As your company grows and develops, you need to instil that same spirit in your team.”
When discussing the state of the finance industry within the Global Group’s region, Johnny reflects on some of the major challenges it currently faces. “The finance industry is one that meets with constant challenges, but it is robust and innovative. For example, Hong Kong is embracing fintech in a huge way. The greatest influence here is the continued strength of the vast Chinese market, which will continue to generate new opportunities for a long time, both with the development of services and the rising consumption and brand awareness of the growing middle class, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative, that will boost infrastructure and connectivity across Eurasia. Presently, there are some challenges with the growth of protectionism and populism in the major western countries, but I believe these will be overcome.”
Company: Global Group Capital Management Ltd Address: Brook Street, London WK DB, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 3178 7615 Fax: +44 (0)20 3178 7616 Email: johnny.hon@global.hk Company: Global Group International Holdings Ltd. Address: 54th Floor, Bank of China Tower, 1 Garden Road, Central HK Telephone: (+852) 36562800 Fax: (+852) 3656 2900 Email: johnny.hon@global.hk 10
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Flexible and Fast, Concierge Style Service for Telecommunications For almost 30 years, Adam Phones has been creating award-winning mobile and fixed line connectivity solutions for some of the most demanding clients and businesses in the world; including international government agencies, the London Diplomatic community and high net worth individuals.
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thriving part of our client base is the London Alternative Investment Market; we successfully support over 35 per cent of the sector, including multinational financial services, hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices and wealth
about every project, applying methods of appraisal, deployment and measurement which have evolved over many years. We use forensic auditing to predict the cost of a new solution and employ a dedicated team of financial analysts who audit prospective clients phone bills, so we can accurately model savings and forecast what clients will spend.
Adam Phones is a business built on supporting those who demand exceptionally high levels of service, and we are passionately dedicated to customer service. We deliver a ‘flexible and fast’, concierge style service – and our clients regard us as a responsive and invaluable extension to their management teams.
By uniting a diverse range of products and services under our umbrella, we completely remove the complexity of negotiating different supplier agreements and varying contractual terms – and the headache of account managers, support staff and billing from individual sources.
managers.
Operationally, the company has actively continued to expand resources across the business to ensure capacity ahead of growth; with headcount increases across sales, account management, technical support, provisioning, finance and operations. Additionally, at the beginning of 2016, a secondary office was purchased to continue this expansion.
Our support facilitates are tailored to our clients’ needs. Customers in London can expect to have a broken handset replaced within two hours, those based globally as soon as a courier can reach them and if they’re out of reception, we can provide SIMs on a multitude of networks thanks to our unique arrangements with the leading mobile operators.
The business has expanded organically, without relying on acquisition to deliver growth or bolster its client numbers, and has facilitated its internal investment in staff and premises while maintaining a debt-free balance sheet. We understand that our clients value stability, and therefore being able to demonstrate our financial stability as a business helps give them confidence to trust us with their communications requirements.
Almost all our clients work across multiple time zones and regularly travel internationally – they are intolerant to downtime and expect boutique and hands-on levels of service. We provide direct access to named account managers and support personnel. Having a team of trusted advisers and support staff who know your company and your people is core to what we do here. We foster a highly collaborative structure; the staff retention rates are as unprecedented as the client retention rates and over 22 per cent of our team have worked for the company for over a decade.
Looking towards the future, Adam Phones has been investing heavily in the development of a compelling new range of products and services to support innovative and stable communications - and we have an aggressive delivery roadmap for 2017 and beyond.
Security is also a priority for our clients; they need a supplier who understands their need for phenomenally high levels of discretion. Our highly experienced and stable team, are all security vetted. As a service provider, only we have access to client details, which are never visible to the networks. And we provide a multitude of security solutions from redacted invoices to ensure the security of client data, to sophisticated call recording solutions for those that need it.
Next year will be one of the biggest for compliance deadlines. Alongside the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – which provides updated safeguards for customer data - the second ‘Markets in Financial Instruments Directive’ (MiFID II) comes into force on the 3 January 2018. While all companies will have to meet GDPR requirements, MiFID II will have a massive impact on the financial services sector, and we’re working closely with our clients to ensure they have the right telephony solutions in place to adapt to these regulations.
Aside from all the service benefits of a boutique telecoms provider, our commercial buying power with the networks enables us to leverage significant cost savings for clients; giving them the confidence that costs won’t spiral, especially when travelling internationally. We’re meticulous
One of the main areas of change, is around call recording. While current regulations stipulate a requirement to record mobile phone calls for
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those operating within certain remits of financial services (specifically traders), MiFID II will introduce a new wave of enhancements. These adjustments will overhaul every facet of call recording; from the storage duration and use of recordings to enforcing call recording on organisations who previously were exempt. Currently, only conversations with individuals directly involved in a trade need to be recorded. MiFID II advances this, stipulating calls be recorded for anyone in the “advice chain� that could lead to a trade. Also, organisations need to retain their call recording data for a minimum of five years rather than just six months. We’ve been delivering secure, compliant mobile call recording solutions to FCA regulated companies for over five years. Our MiFID II compliant solution, ensures calls are recorded at network level, with no mobile applications required; this guarantees compatibility with any device and no change to user behaviour. Adam Phones has continued to see significant growth across the mobile and fixed line portfolio, aided by enhancements to our MiFID II compliant mobile voice recording solution, and the rollout of EE as a third mobile network partner.
Contact: Adam Toop Company: Adam Phones Address: 1-3 Dolphin Square, Edensor Road, London, W4 2ST, UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 8742 0101 Website: www.adamphones.com
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Professional Fraud Investigators Acting Globally Global Investigations are a private detective and investigations agency, specialising in fields such as technical and traditional surveillance, fraud detection and due diligence. Following their success in the 2017 Leading Fraud Investigators’ Awards, we interviewed the firm’s Jack Roberts to find out more.
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he clients of Global Investigations are varied, from private clients to large companies. From celebrities living in the public eye to the man next door, the firm takes pride in being able to assist all people at all times. Many of them using the firm’s services repeatedly over the years.
“We cannot stress this enough, if you think that you are a victim of fraud or corruption then contact us or a reputable agency and discover the truth immediately, do not ‘wait and see’. Our investigations are very discreet; we can confirm or deny activity in nearly all occasions without alerting the suspected party.
The firm’s Jack Roberts tells us how it feels to be selected for the 2017 Leading Fraud Investigators’ Awards, plus how the firm is at the forefront of technological advances in the industry.
“Criminals are very subtle in their activities; you may not realise that you have been targeted until it is too late. We recommend that to protect yourself from this - in the first place you should carry out the necessary due diligence on any prospective business partners, investments or purchases. It is an old and clichéd saying, but it is ‘better to be safe than sorry’ I believe.”
“We feel very privileged to be selected for this award. From small beginnings in 1994, Global Investigations has grown and adapted in this ever-changing technical age. This award is recognition of the hard work that has gone into the firm over the past 23 years. As well as proof that all our staff are highly trained and extremely hardworking, indeed their own years of training are shown in this award.
Jack then shares some of the firm’s significant achievements from the past year, and outlines the vital role that staff play at Global Investigations. “We can’t speak too much of personal clients, but we have helped hundreds of clients through the last year. We have uncovered people involved in undertaking scams and criminal activity, plus we have worked alongside over many police forces providing intelligence to them, helping to ensure that prosecutions can be made and arrests asked for warranted. We are called in when our clients are exasperated with what can be done, and they need a professional team to help.
“The modern age is moving so quickly where technology is involved, things such as cameras and listening devices are becoming smaller, information is becoming the new requirement and the methods which people use to evade detection in aspects of fraud are becoming easier to use, Global Investigations considers itself at the forefront of these advances, so this award shows the public proof that we are.”
“All the staff here at Global Investigations are integral to its success. We are a tight knit team, working closely together and operating nationwide, with staff as far based as the north of Scotland to the far south. Our London office is the main hub, where we work closely on larger projects.
Following on from this, Jack is keen to detail the firm’s role as a leading fraud investigator. “Global have always been at the forefront of fraud investigations, and we have worked tirelessly for our clients in the UK and internationally. We have looked at hundreds and possibly thousands of characters of criminals, whom are operating purely to the misery of others, so we see it as a constant compulsory battle to educate and apprehend whenever we can.
“Their own knowledge and experience gained, adds to the firm in a very important way. Many of the staff here are bi-lingual and multi-tasking. They are all highly trained, not only in their own field of specialism, but we ensure that they can take on varied roles job in other areas too.
“The subjects whom we deal with can sometimes appear to us more than once, with more than one client. We ensure diligence investigations and cost effective methods are used, and will always offer some free guidance and a shoulder to lean on. But, more importantly, we offer effective deterrents and contributions to identify the culprits and bringing incriminatory action where it is needed.”
“Also, our customer service team is first class, response time is immediate, and I believe I have the best UK team. We have had many staff members with us for over 18 years, proving that we are a family who love our work and the success it brings.” Jack brings things to a close by highlighting the firm’s ambitions for the future as a key firm involved in the fraud sector today.
Of course, it is vital that corporations should seek the advice and guidance of key professionals, should they suspect that they have been a victim of fraud or corruption. Jack offers his view on this and underlines how their investigations are very discreet.
“We would want to expand Global Investigations and our reach, we are based in Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, yet we work nationally and globally. Expanding the company internationally will allow us to improve our attendance times. 14
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“Urgent investigatory work, tracking and surveillance can be undertaken in mainland Europe within a matter of hours, we would like to reduce this to minutes. “Our network of foreign agents are involved in the fraud sector and investigation is growing rapidly. We are employing many others in many countries that are becoming very valuable to the Global Investigations team.”
Company: Global Investigations Name: Jack Roberts Email: jack@tracing.com Web Address: www.globalinvestigations.co.uk Address: 1st Floor, 44 Richmond Road, Kingston, Surrey, KT2 5EE UK Telephone: +44 (0)208 546 6399
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A Smart Move For more than a decade, Savant has built a successful business creating technology automation systems for the residential and commercial markets. MD of Savant Systems Europe Caroline Britt, MD spoke to us to provide background to the firm’s offerings in the smart home market.
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elecom pioneer Robert Madonna founded Savant after having sold his previous company, Excel Switching, to Lucent in 1999. Mr Madonna founded Savant after seeing the major drawbacks to existing home automation systems and he decided to create a better home automation system for the luxury market.
also to bask in the goodness of their home by automating their lights, shades, heating, cameras, and much more. “Looking at the wider picture, we are seeing an ever-increasing number of smart home devices, such as wireless speakers, thermostats, smart bulbs, voice recognition, etc. specifically aimed at the retail and DIY markets. Although many of these are excellent stand-alone products, they are typically IoT (Internet of Things) devices that are often ‘island solutions’, which do not integrate well with each other and are often beyond the skills of customers to install.
Savant is now the premium whole home automation and audio video distribution system of choice for mansions, castles and yachts. In addition, Savant has expanded its product offering throughout the smart home market, providing sophisticated yet affordable solutions for home automation to builders and homeowners around the world.
“So, while there is a definite place for them, and they do provide users with a valuable introduction to what is possible, there is probably a larger volume of business to be had with more professional products that require a DIFM (Do It for Me) approach to design, installation and maintenance.”
Caroline Britt is MD of Savant Systems Europe, and manages a team of experienced sales and technical staff to appoint, train & support custom installers who appreciate the numerous business and technical advantages of selling, installing and commissioning the well-regarded Savant brand in the UK and throughout Europe.
In closing, Caroline adds her insights into the pace of change in the sector and the level of technology that the firm offers considering this.
Caroline explains how they ensure high levels of customer service are achieved and what kind of feedback they receive from those they serve.
“The pace of change in audio, video and home automation technology continues to accelerate and as more people become aware of the possibilities, the greater the business opportunities become to satisfy their desires and needs.
“To ensure that we achieve high levels of customer service for all our Savant accredited dealers, it is pivotal to our success that our staff are enthusiastic, knowledgeable and experts in all aspects of home automation, not just Savant products. So, we are very pleased that our team can draw on many years of experience with residential audio, video and control, including all the latest and demanding developments in 4K/ UHD television and streaming audio.
“While the love affair we all seem to have with our smartphones and tablets continues, and for many they remain an essential centrepiece for controlling the world around us, it’s becoming clear to some that reaching for such a device and navigating to an app, however good the user interface design might be, is not always the most convenient or familiar for use by all the family. So, there are still a lot of good reasons to have an easy to use remote control handset that has physical buttons which can be picked up and used quickly, perhaps without even needing to glance at it! “
“Savant products are always highly praised by end users and our customers alike for their intuitive, easy to use and reliable nature. In particular, the ability for users to set their own ‘scenes’ without programming that sync up multiple disparate devices with a single button press or at a scheduled time is very appealing and uncommon among competing systems. For example, a user can simply create a scene (or even just capture the current room or home state) such as a ‘film night’ scene that dims the lights, closes the curtains, switches on the TV and surround sound and then starts your movie player. Of course, there are opportunities and challenges for the firm and the wider industry as we move into the future. Caroline elaborates on this point in her own words.
“We are also at the dawn of the age of ubiquitous voice assistants with AI (artificial intelligence) that have already started to transform the way that people can choose to interact with their technology and environment. Of course, voice control is not always going to be the most appropriate in all situations. So, there will always be a need to complement it with at least a few well-placed physical touch screens or remote controls in the home, and smartphone apps for access anywhere away from it, to achieve the most efficient, convenient and capable of smart homes.”
“In the post Brexit vote world of 2017 and beyond, luxury home automation continues to be a vibrant market for Savant. There is also an expanding mid-market with significant numbers of new houses and MDUs (multiple dwelling units) being built for sale aimed at the millennial generation of home owner and tech savvy users that have come to expect the convenience, comfort, security and energy management of not only controlling all their audio and video entertainment systems but
Company: Savant Systems LLC Name: Caroline Britt, MD Web Address: www.savanteurope.co.uk Address: 2 Lambourn Business Park, Lambourn Woodlands, Hungerford, RG17 7RY Telephone: 01488 649340
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Seeking Value in a Passive World Levin Capital Strategies L.P. (“LCS”) is a long-only and alternative investment manager with approximately $7 billion of AUM at the time of writing. The firm, which was founded by John A. Levin in 2005, is New York based and has 35 employees including 14 investment professionals with an average of 27 years in the industry. A spokesperson from the firm reveals more.
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CS is an SEC registered advisor, with most of their assets in long-only strategies and also manages alternative strategies including long short hedge funds and an event driven hedge fund. The strategies are offered in a separate account and alternative investment vehicle format.
“The investment team has domain expertise in specific sectors, such as financials or industrials, and nearly 100% of our ideas are generated internally by our research team. Our analysts’ responsibility is to generate investible stocks ideas, having said that, we do operate relatively sector neutral and we believe most of our value-added outperformance is based on stock selection, not on timing the market or sector allocation.”
Consistent across their various strategies, they perform bottom-up, fundamental research with the goal of preserving capital and generating profit consistently through all market environments. This approach has enabled them to produce a long-term track record of superior risk-adjusted performance.
As the president of the firm, Glenn Aigen is almost responsible for everything apart from picking the stocks and trading them. He is involved with new business development and operations. In terms of what the clients say about what the firm does, Glenn underlines that the clients like their process, which is the predictive research they do which involves getting to know the investee companies. Added to that, clients know that the firm is a contrarian value manager who looks for catalysts in their positions, staying in their style box and are not shy to put forward interesting investment ideas and they know that we conduct bottom-up research and are stock pickers.
A spokesperson from Levin Capital Strategies, LP reveals more about the firm’s client mix, strategies employed and the advantages they offer as a long-only and alternative investment manager. “We have a sophisticated client mix, and we manage assets for a wide mix of clients including US mutual funds, endowments, foundations, retirement plans and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). In terms of the firm’s successes, I would say that we have a pretty good track record for stock selection for our clients whether that be on a 1,3, 5,10 or longer period. We have done a pretty good job in picking stocks, managing risk and outperforming the benchmarks for many of our strategies. “We operate as an integrated research team, with 11 analysts, some of who are portfolio managers and three traders with significant industry experience. The average industry tenure of our research team is around 26 years. The group has worked together for some time and we believe that by having our analysts covering both long and short positions, makes them well rounded investment professionals. We don’t hire people out of business school, indeed many of the team here have grey hairs.
Looking ahead, having heard some wonderful things about the company, there are certainly challenges for active management. Jack Murphy, Senior Portfolio Manager, said “We think that there are a lot of people out there who have got involved in the passive indexing game, that is people have no idea what they are buying within their funds such as passive ETF’s. When you have a time when there is any kind of disruption in the stock market, we think the people who bought those pools, will not realise just how much risk they took. While you may have saved on costs buying an ETF when you want to outperform the market for one brief period, but those small savings on fees are probably going to add up very quickly as losses in your portfolio. That is a challenge going ahead, yet it is also an opportunity.”
“Jack Murphy, who is the portfolio manager of Large, All and Mid Cap Value long-only strategies, spends a lot of his time as an analyst looking at the industrial and consumer sectors. Each of our analysts is a sector specialist, and we typically have more than one analyst covering each investment idea. However, we only have single trigger pullers for each of the strategies we employ. There is no investment committee here, hence Jack and John are responsible for the portfolios they manage. We believe that this aspect of our work makes us nimble.”
“Finally, we believe that there should be room for active managers in everybody’s portfolio, who show the ability to outperform the applicable index over time and our investment process has remained relatively unchanged over time.”
Company: Levin Capital Strategies, LP Name: Rebecca L. Reiss Business Development Manager Email: RReiss@levincap.com Web Address: www.levincap.com Address: 595 Madison Avenue - 17th floor New York, NY 10022 Telephone: +1 212 259 0826
The spokesperson adds that they don’t focus on what is happening in the ‘rear-view mirror’ because their investment process looks for predictive changes in companies to both their future earnings growth and product. As mentioned earlier, the firm’s investment team has over 26 years’ experience on average. The spokesperson tells us more about the integrated team of senior sector specialists. 18
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Factor Investing - Boosting Returns from Equity and Credit Markets When traditional asset classes are expected to deliver low returns, diversification into uncorrelated sources of return can help investors. Factor – or smart-beta – investing involves exactly that: creating portfolios around factors that can be expected to generate positive returns over the long run that are uncorrelated with the returns of the traditional asset classes.
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Just pure exposure please Investors could wonder whether it makes sense to go short or underweight expensive, high-risk and unprofitable stocks or those with the weakest past returns and overweight cheap, low-risk, profitable stocks or those with the strongest past returns in a single portfolio. We believe there is little to gain from such an effort and that it is best for strategies to be focused on straightforward long exposure to a single factor or a combination of all four.6
factor can be thought of as any characteristic of a group of securities that is important in explaining their return and risk. How do we create exposure to factors? By tilting portfolios towards stocks or bonds that are exposed to factors such as: Value – being cheap Low risk – being less risky Momentum – having strong (past) returns Quality – being profitable
Factor investing is a natural extension of quantitative investing with recent innovations involving greater transparency and robustness. New generation strategies target risk exposures to well-identified factors for which there is strong academic evidence that they have generated uncorrelated positive excess returns.
We believe that investing in a multi-factor strategy beats investing in a collection of single-factor strategies, because this allows for better control of the risk allocation to each factor and better management of any constraint. Running a multi-factor portfolio requires lower portfolio turnover and is thus more efficient. However, single-factor strategies can be useful for investors that already have factor exposures in their portfolios.
In fixed-income, the low-risk premium can be found across the asset class. Whether it is government bonds, investment-grade credit, highyield credit or even emerging market debt, low-risk bonds can generate a positive premium1. As with equities - factor premiums can be harvested from multi-factor investing in investment-grade and high-yield credit - based on the value, low risk, quality and momentum factors using low-turnover strategies.
At BNP Paribas Asset Management, factor-based – or smart-beta – strategies are managed by THEAM, the specialist in model-driven, indexing and capital protection investing approaches. THEAM currently employs more than 60 fund managers, product structuring experts, investment specialists and financial engineers. Teams can draw on the international marketing power of BNP Paribas Asset Management and BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB). Assets under management amount to EUR 38.2 billion (as of 31st March 2017).
An example - the low risk factor Low-risk stocks, which are selected using historical volatility measures, earn an attractive factor premium. Yet, it remains important to diversify the exposure across sectors. This should help steer away from a concentration of holdings in sectors that have been found to contain many low-volatility stocks, but that have also been shown to be particularly sensitive to changes in interest rates. These would be the typical non-cyclical sectors that do poorly when interest rates rise2.
For more on the investment opportunities, go to www.theam.bnpparibas, www.bnpparibas-am.com or investors-corner.bnpparibas-am.com 1
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Looking at other factors, quality reflects the strength of company profitability as well as competitive and management strength3. The momentum factor reflects the finding that shares of companies with the strongest past returns have generated higher future returns than those with a poorer past performance, and without being riskier4. Value simply refers to companies that are valued at a market price that is below what could be expected given their book value, earnings, cash flows and other equivalent measures5.
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R. Leote de Carvalho, P. Dugnolle, X. Lu, P. Moulin, Low-risk anomalies in global fixed income: Evidence from major broad markets, The Journal of Fixed Income, 2014. R. Leote de Carvalho, Low-risk equity strategies without interest rate sensitivity investors-corner.bnpparibas-am.com/thought-leadership/low-risk-equity-strategies-without-interest-rate-sensitivity. E. Vincent, Quality, the Positive Factor, investors-corner.bnpparibas-am.com/ investment-themes/quality-the-positive-factor E. Vincent, Momentun, the Unloved Factor, investors-corner.bnpparibas-am. com/investment-themes/momentum-the-unloved-factor E. Vincent, Value, the Obvious Factor, investors-corner.bnpparibas-am.com/ investment-themes//value-the-obvious-factor R. Leote de Carvalho, X. Lu, F. Soupe, P. Dugnolle, Diversify and Purify Factor Premiums in Equity Markets in Factor Investing and Alternative Risk Premia, editor Emmanuel Jurczsenko, ISTE and Elsevier, October 2017
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Company: THEAM - BNP Paribas Name: Sébastien Denry Email: sebastien.denry@bnpparibas.com Web Address: www.theam.bnpparibas Address: 14 rue Bergère 75009 Paris - France Telephone: +33 1 58 97 70 27
“Cheap, low risk, profitable companies with the strongest past returns should offer the highest potential future returns.” Exhibit 1: Sources of alternative risk premia for equities and bonds
Source: BNP Paribas Asset Management, June 2017
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Vast Experience in Legal Marketing The Rainmaker Institute is the USA’S largest law firm marketing company. They specialise in lead generation, lead conversion and client retention for small to mid-sized law firms. They were pleased to receive the 2017 Legal Elite Award, after which we invited them to tell us more about the firm’s work.
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ince 1999, The Rainmaker Institute has helped over 20,000 attorneys significantly increase their revenues and given them the tools to build 7 and 8-figure lifestyle law firms.
We have over 65 expert team members - who interface with our clients on a daily and weekly basis. They are the reason why clients stay with us. They are ones who do all the heavy lifting and ensure clients receive top notch care and real world results.
We are the only legal marketing company that offers two day educational workshops, called Rainmaker Retreats (www.RainmakerRetreat. com), to attorneys every month on business development, marketing, and sales. We have developed a national reputation for intake and lead conversion within law firms. We have helped more law firms break the 7-figure barrier than any other company. As a digital marketing agency for attorneys, we have a proven track record of maintaining a 95% client retention rate year over year.
Stephen Fairley is the Founder and CEO of The Rainmaker Institute. He is trained as a clinical psychologist and has spoken to sold-out crowds at over 35 of the largest state and local bar associations and dozens of specialised legal trade associations. Stephen has written 12 books including two international best-sellers. Finally, on the extent to which the legal environment is a fast paced and exciting sector to be in, I would say that there are 1.3 million attorneys in the US today and another 38,000-new law school graduates every year. That’s one attorney for every 255 people! The legal marketplace has some of the highest competition of any industry, for example, 78 out of the top 100 most expensive pay-per-click terms on Google relate to the field of law.
We offer six primary services to law firms which are: • Content marketing and social media management. We have written over 150,000 unique blog posts for our clients to position them as industry experts in their selected practice areas. We set up, run and manage all their social media marketing including Facebook payper-click campaigns. • Monthly Newsletters. We create ‘done for you’ newsletters for law firms, that they can send out to all their current and former clients and strategic referral partners. • Website development. We build custom WordPress websites. • Lead Conversion System. We have a proprietary cloud-based intake and lead conversion software service we provide to consumer law firms. • Intake University. We provide training and consulting to law firms on how to convert more prospects into paying clients. • Onsite consulting. For our higher end, volume based law firm clients, we provide onsite consulting and training for their intake staff, attorneys and management teams.
Company: The Rainmaker Institute Name: Stephen Fairley Email: stephenfairley@therainmakerinstitute.com Web Address: www.TheRainmakerInstitute.com www.RainmakerRetreat.com Address: 2487 S Gilbert Rd Ste 106-440, Gilbert AZ 85295, USA Telephone: +1 888 588 5891
2017 Legal Elite Award We are honoured to be recognised for the 2017 Legal Elite Award. Our team of 65 dedicated professionals have several decades of combined experience in legal marketing. We believe this award is a perfect acknowledgment of the hard work and commitment our team demonstrates every day.
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Reliability, Earnestness & High Quality Luciano Tommaso Ponzi is a third-generation member of one of Italy’s most recognised investigation families since the 1950s. Since joining the business in the mid-1980s, Luciano has successfully worked on intellectual property infringement matters for some of Italy’s most prestigious brands. As a winner in the 2017 Leading Fraud Investigators’ Awards, we interviewed the man himself to find out more.
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uciano Ponzi Investigations continues to work for leading financial institutions throughout Italy, offering international investigative due diligence (IDD) support. Mr. Luciano Tommaso Ponzi operates a national network of trusted investigators, intelligence contacts, surveillance operatives and technical analysts throughout Italy who underpin the brand protection and covert investigation projects he manages for the firm’s corporate client base.
Organisations security is also part of our offered package of high value added services, but the application of advanced technologies such as GPS, systems control and other complex online investigations it is also significant. Today’s experience allows us to address both complex researches - for multinationals and an equally complicated investigation for a private citizen - through all social and modern features representing the contemporary world.
Mr. Ponzi is a member of the Association of British Investigators (ABI), and the World Association of Detectives (WAD). Luciano is also appointed as the sole Italy representative of the Association of European Investigators (AEI).
There are many reasons why you wish to be present on Who’s Who in World, mostly the need for networking, consulting, branding and additional exposure. This is one of these reasons is more important to you, or would you say that they are all important?
What exactly prompted you to become involved in your career? Private investigations has been a tradition for generations in my family. Tom Ponzi’s activity dates back to the 1950s. However, I am driven not only by my past inheritance, but by a true passion for the world of private investigations which is now very much made of innovative technology. My services go from small private to multinational companies.
Your magazine has been the top reference in this sector for years. It is qualifying for our company to be part of it and this definitely helps our positioning and our commitment to our work. I strongly believe that it is important to activate all channels to be seen by our customers, in short to be always visible and available for whoever needs our services. However, it is no doubt the work of our all team that can guarantee our final results, hardly achieved otherwise.
What is your area of expertise and what are you best noted for? An important area of the investigative services supplied by our company nowadays involves innovative issues, such as counter-intelligence, trademark and patent protection, corporate know-how and assets, safeguarding in broader forms.
Finally, what do you attribute your success to? Reliability, earnestness and high quality standards for the smallest detail are our main values, but I think the most important factor is the loyalty of our customers who continue to look for our services through the years. This is also due to my personal ongoing training, the constant innovation in the procedures and technologies used by our company, the strong belief that studying is always a source for development. Last but not least, the wish to learn new things, be always updated and the never ending craving for truth will always be at the heart of the firm’s work.
Company: LUCIANO PONZI INVESTIGAZIONI Name: Luciano Tommaso Ponzi Email: luciano@ponzi.pro Web Address: www.lucianoponzi.it Address: Via Roveggia 126, 37136 – Verona, Italy Telephone: +39 380 8412888
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Formula 1 - Change and Opportunity in Motorsport’s Premier Series For the first time in over 40 years, there is a new hand on the tiller of Formula 1 (F1) - motorsport’s premier racing series. For many, change means uncertainty, but for others it signals opportunity. If you fall into the latter group, the early signs are extremely positive.
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1 remains far and away the most popular motorsport series in the world. For a sport that generates almost $3bn in revenue annually, the ‘race local, reach global’ approach that F1 embodies is a model that appeals to organisations seeking access to diverse markets. Twenty-one races take place in 21 countries across five continents, over the course of nine months.
In one of the largest pieces of sports fan research ever commissioned, the motorsport team at CSM Sport & Entertainment, has identified six distinct fan segments within F1. Our research, which surveyed 18,000 people aged 16+ from 18 countries across the globe, identified the ‘fanatics’. These are a segment of super fans, who despite representing only 3% of the total fan base, wield disproportionate influence in terms of the time and money they invest in following the sport.
80m fans from across the globe tune in for each race, with a cumulative global audience of over 1.8bn, across 200 territories via 110 broadcasters. Digital is also growing with 158m video views, 41m Facebook likes and 25m Twitter followers.
Compared to the average F1 fan, ‘fanatics’ are more likely to be male (65%) and young (70% are under 45), plus 79% are in ABC1 occupations, the highest for any group of F1 fans. ‘Fanatics’ are present in all the countries surveyed, but there are relatively more of them in Asia, possibly reflecting rapid economic growth and increasing numbers of the super-wealthy in the region.
In terms of scale, diversity of audience and assets, not to mention longevity, F1 is almost unrivalled in sport when allowing affiliated companies, the chance to build a truly global programme that will achieve business objectives.
The key for sponsors, is that organisations involved in F1 achieve strong brand penetration and 93% of ‘fanatics’ state they have become aware of new brands through their sponsorship of F1, reflecting the potential size of the prize.
What is the opportunity? New Chairman and CEO of F1, Chase Carey commented upon completion of the takeover that F1 is a sport with ‘huge potential’ and ‘multiple untapped opportunities’. His Formula One Group (FOG) as they are now known, has wasted little time in realising that potential.
Our research also found that 90% of ‘fanatics’ think that companies that sponsor F1 improve their image, while 84% say that they are more likely to consider a brand if they are a sponsor of F1. Nearly three quarters of ‘fanatics’ say that they have consciously made purchases from brands that sponsor F1, because of their involvement in the sport.
The F1 calendar already takes place in or near some of the world’s most commercial and cosmopolitan hubs including: Melbourne, Shanghai, Barcelona, Monaco, London, Milan, Singapore, Austin, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Abu Dhabi. With discussions, already underway with a view to adding another destination city such as Miami, New York, Las Vegas or perhaps another Asian location to the roster, the business opportunities within the sport will only grow exponentially.
Our expertise CSM Motorsport has brought many global organisations into F1, through a team sponsorship, a title sponsorship or a global FOG sponsorship, each time with a plan in place to leverage a comprehensive and unique suite of assets to achieve very different business objectives.
Levels of brand engagement are also experiencing a significant lift as the rules are relaxed around what brands can and can’t leverage within the sport. Recent reports point to three to four times more fan engagement across all touchpoints against this time last season. Therein lies the greatest opportunity for organisations looking to reach a wealthy, commercially active and globally diverse audience.
Different objectives require a different approach, and we have developed programmes that focus on a specific consumer group (see UBS example below), that have a business-to-business (B2B) core such as UPS and some, like Johnnie Walker, that are about awareness and engagement at scale.
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We worked with UBS to identify the right sponsorship model within F1, a global partnership with Formula One Management, to drive brand awareness in key markets as well as a team sponsorship with Mercedes-AMG Petronas. The latter has been applied to drive tailored, targeted, relevant and highly engaging communications with high net worth individuals (HNWI).
While the two examples above are, platforms targeted at more niche audiences, the strategy and activation programme we have developed for Diageo and their Johnnie Walker brand, has been firmly targeted at aspirational consumers of a legal drinking age. Johnnie Walker’s team partnerships with McLaren-Honda and Force India, alongside its status as the Official Whisky of Formula, have been leveraged to realise mass sampling and engagement at scale among the brand’s key audience at and away from races. In addition, Johnnie Walker, has utilised its partnerships to deliver Join the Pact, Diageo’s longest running and most successful responsible drinking initiative.
Our proposition centred on utilising F1 assets to deliver against key UBS business themes, including strategy, insight & foresight and thought leadership. We worked with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team Principal Toto Wolff, to deliver a Thought Leadership content series charting his path to success. In addition, we delivered Insight through a longer form documentary piece called the ‘Silver Arrows’ – capturing a behind the scenes look at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team from the Barcelona GP to Monaco. These content pieces were part of an annual communications plan aimed at reaching our target HNWIs.
The above are all examples of how organisations have used their affiliation with F1 to deliver against very different business goals. It also demonstrates the versatility of F1 as a global sporting property. Part of CSM Sport & Entertainment, with 800 employees, across 25 offices in 19 countries, CSM Motorsport has unrivalled heritage within F1. With over 20 years at the centre of the sport, CSM Motorsport is a full-service specialist motorsports marketing agency with broad capabilities in: sponsorship negotiation, strategy & consultancy, marketing communications, creative, social media and content, digital and event marketing.
Our focus for UPS and their partnership with Scuderia Ferrari, has been on developing and delivering an effective business-to-business (B2B) programme. We have positioned UPS as a thought leader in the global logistics sector, through corporate business forums for customers at races, coupled with a strong B2B communications plan to achieve cutthrough to SME’s around the world.
For more information on the opportunities in Formula 1 or the Formula 1 fan segmentation please contact us.
Company: CSM Name: Chris Long Email: chris.long@csm.com Web Address: www.csm.com Address: 3rd Floor, 62 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AJ UK Telephone: +44 7779 797 611
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Bringing Property and People Together Countrywide Conveyancing Services (CCS) is one of the UK’s largest residential conveyancing businesses undertaking the legal work when their customers are selling, buying and remortgaging their homes. As winner of the Most Outstanding Law Firm 2017 and Best Residential Conveyancing Services – UK awards, we took the chance to speak with the firm’s Lianne Scott.
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ountrywide Conveyancing Services (CCS) operate as an alternative business structure, regulated by the Council for Licenced Conveyancers. CCS is an intrinsic part of Countrywide PLC, the UK’s largest property services provider. They employ over 400 members of staff located in Manchester and Cardiff. They complete over 30,000 cases per year; managing over 200,000 calls.
• Be straightforward: They keep it simple, dealing with the complicated things so their customers don’t have to. • Be passionate: They love working with property and they work hard knowing what they do matters.
They are the only major conveyancer to hold ISO27001:2005 accreditation and the firm is plain English approved. Their mission is simple; to be the property partner of choice by bringing property and people together.
“It’s all we do and it allows us to have a laser focus on conveyancing services and offer innovative market leading panel management. With unrivalled customer service and transaction cycle times, we offer a range of services including: sale and purchase (freehold and leasehold); re-mortgage and separate legal representation.
In terms of the legal products and services the firm provides, they are a residential property law experts, as Lianne goes on to explain further.
On winning the Most Outstanding Law Firm 2017 and Best Residential Conveyancing Services – UK awards, the firm’s Lianne Scott sums up her thoughts on these achievements.
Concerning how the firm stands out from the crowd, Lianne reveals the undoubted commitment the team shows towards their customers.
“We are delighted to have won the Most Outstanding Law Firm – Best Residential Conveyancing Services UK awards. The award recognises the consistent commitment of our people to our customers. This award is for them; our lawyers go above and beyond every single day and we’re proud of them and of the service they deliver.
“Our commitment to our customers is embedded in our culture and DNA at every level of our business. We’ve invested £2million in a technology overhaul and a bespoke portal (Conveyancing Connect) to bring our lawyers, customers and referrers together in one place. This gives us a complete solution for instructing, case tracking, milestone updates, online protocol forms and uploading and downloading documents. This has enabled us to make our large organisation feel personal and our lawyers have embraced building a rapport with their customers. Closer relationships have paved the way so that our lawyers regularly go the extra mile for our customers, because they have formed a personal connection and they care.
“Our award is the culmination of our clear vision and values. Over the past few years we have built on our strengths and capabilities. We are proud of our achievements and have high ambitions for growth and our future. We asked ourselves, what more can we do? Our industry is evolving rapidly and we knew we could take the leadership role in shaping its future by putting people at the heart of everything we do.
“Our Conveyancing Connect portal has meant that we can reduce the turnaround times, speeding up the conveyancing process. Within two hours of opening a customers’ case we’ve received their completed protocol forms back meaning we can issue contracts the same day. The feedback from our estate agent referrers has been fantastic because of the transparency this brings to the process.
“We are thrilled that our approach makes us award winning; but more importantly that our focus on people has created brilliant customer experiences and made Countrywide Conveyancing Services a fantastic place to work.” CCS are 100% committed to their customers and this is driven by and supported by their values: • Be responsible: They do the right thing, they listen, they take time to understand and they always tell the truth. • Be personal: They are a people business; they care about their customers and each other. • They have fun.
“We’ve also initiated a bespoke Communication Experience Training programme and delivered this to every individual member of staff; this programme proved to be the catalyst for a cultural shift within the business truly putting people at the heart of everything we do. Our commitment to our customers means that our Hearts and Minds programme is now mandatory for every new member of our business.”
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Closing on a note of optimism, Lianne reveals more about the firm’s client satisfaction levels plus her hopes and plans for the firm in the future.
“We are proud to be building our future on such strong foundations and our awards for the Most Outstanding Law Firm and Best Residential Conveyancing Services are a testament to all we have achieved so far.”
“Customer satisfaction is high on the agenda at all levels of the business and forms part of our core objectives. In the last 12 months, our Net Promoter Score (NPS) has leapt by 19 points and that’s all down to our commitment to our customers from the boardroom to the front line. We regularly receive several customer compliments daily and these are all shared with our people. Creating a positive working environment is key to replicating high levels of service consistently every time.
Company: Countrywide Conveyancing Services Name: Lianne Scott Email: Lianne.Scott@Countrywide.co.uk Web Address: www.countrywide.co.uk Address: 7th Floor, UK House, 180 Oxford Street, London, W1D 1NN UK Telephone: +44 (0)7712 538 753
“The time is now for change and we are well on our roadmap to achieve our 2020 goals which are to be: The most recommended company in the property sector; recognised as one of the best places to work in the UK; transforming the reputation of our industry and celebrated for excellent financial performance.
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Your Body Is a Living Temple At Temple Spa, they honestly believe that life is a gift. Their philosophy is, ‘your body is a living temple’ so honour it, enjoy your life and live it to the full. In other words, we exist to live, breathe and truly love what we do. As winner of the Best Luxury Spa Range, in our Faith in Finance series, we interviewed the firm’s Mel Griffiths to learn more.
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laced in the luxury sector, Temple Spa is a niche brand and a unique find. Their products and therapies are discovered in premium spas, boutique five-star hotels, high-end stores such as Harrods London, first class airlines and resorts and of course on-line. The firm’s Mel Griffiths is eager to tell us more about the firm’s brand and what they offer, plus something of their philosophy.
“CREATION GIVEN – nature provides us with a plethora of botanicals and when formulating we’ll always visit first the provenance of the Mediterranean to find plant, fruit and legume extracts, many of which have a sustainable history of health benefits. ‘You are what you eat’ is a nutritional philosophy that we believe in and since there is a close synergy between the stomach and the skin, it is interesting to see the positive effect of these ingredients on the complexion too.
“The brand was created and continues to be curated by industry guru’s Mark & Liz Warom. They reached into the minds, experience and traditions of international product experts, artisan-herbalists and doctors of derma- science from Switzerland, Italy and the UK. The results are advanced formulas in a different league, with high levels of the finest natural ingredients combined with cutting edge science.
“RESULTS DRIVEN - texture and performance matter. We highly regard the place for derma- science, technical innovation and research; it has provided us with many remarkable ingredients that work synergistically with their natural counterparts and a combination of both gives us some pretty impressive products.”
“It’s not about ‘hope in a bottle’ or believing that life’s problems can disappear at the mere whiff of an essential oil, but about offering divine products and treatments aimed at busy people, the overstressed and those that expect the very best in skincare and spa preparations.
Testament to Temple Spa’s focus on results and experience, is the fact their SKIN TRUFFLE Total Facial Radiance Moisturiser has been a multiple award winner in the Beauty Bible and is now in their hall of fame. Beauty experts, Jo Fairley & Sarah Stacey from an industry leading publication said: “A truly stupendous score: the highest we’ve ever had for an all-round, all-singing-and-dancing miracle cream, in 17 years of Beauty Bible testing. (Not that Sarah’s surprised: she’s long been a Skin Truffle-ette). Diamond powder, gold and silk clearly do illuminate the skin from first application, testers report; other key ingredients include black truffles, grape seed champagne, purifying strawberries and lush cocoa butter, in a cashmere-soft formulation.”
“Temple Spa advocates a ‘spa wherever you are’ philosophy, with products geared towards self-preservation and overall wellbeing. Savvy packaging, anti-ageing formulas, cashmere-like textures, feel-good factor aromas and names to make you smile.” Mediterranean. The very word is a mental vacation and makes you smile. To escape there is pure joy, but to enjoy a bit of it every day through Temple Spa’s brand is next best according to Mel who then develops this point.
So, you can see that Temple Spa pride themselves on delivering exceptional products and experiences. Bringing the interview to a close, Mel develops this point in more detail and adds her thoughts on what drives the firm’s team and plus their focus on evolving their beautiful brand.
“It was whilst in the Mediterranean, uplifted by the culture, healthy diet, powerful culture and stunning scenery, that the idea for Temple Spa was born. Strongly influenced by the warmth, colours, landscape, history and lifestyle of this magnificent region, it inspires our products, ingredients, spa treatments, design and total philosophy.
“This is simply what drives everyone at Temple Spa. The longevity of our relationships with all our customers is testament and reward for our endeavours and to have won this Best Luxury Spa Range award means we have succeeded. We’re thrilled!
“Mediterranean people are warm, affectionate and passionate. They have a rhythm and style. We love that, and it infuses our language, vision and dreams. Our names and verbiage are warm and chatty too, and we hope this makes you smile and feel good about yourself.”
“As Executive Director of Marketing & Spa; my, and my wonderful team’s day is focused on evolving our beautiful brand, seeking excellence in all we do. Working with and nurturing customers with similar values as ours, who seek to provide a great service, amazing treatments, products that work and a touch of something different to smile about.
Temple Spa, work with the best of breed, to give them the texture-aroma-performance objective of each product. There is a purpose to each product and each standalone without duplication. Mel tells us more about the firm’s philosophy.
“As for our aspirations for the coming years we aim to deliver more of the same and continue to live, breathe and truly love what we do and be the BEST LUXURY SPA BRAND next year too.”
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Company: Temple Spa Name: Mel Griffiths Executive Director of Marketing & Spa Email: marketing@templespa.com Web Address: www.templespa.com Address: The Old Barn, Toddington House, Toddington Lane, Nr. Littlehampton, West Sussex BN17 6JX UK Telephone: +44 (0)1903 712 777
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1707WF04
Wealth & Finance International
Leading the Way in the Moroccan Infrastructure Finance Industry Founded in 2008, Infra Invest, a Fund Manager dedicated to infrastructure and power projects, is a subsidiary of RMA, a leading company in the Moroccan insurance industry, and a subsidiary of FinanceCom Group, one of the largest private financial groups in Morocco with a strong African presence, through its banking and insurance arms (BMCE Bank of Africa, and RMA). Finding out more about the firm, we invited Infra Invest’s Managing Partner, Abdellatif Nasserdine to tell us more.
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ince their inception in 2008, Infra Invest’s core activity is managing private equity funds dedicated to infrastructure and power in Africa. Their mission consists mainly of originating, executing and monitoring equity financing transactions in relation with infrastructure and power projects and assets at different stages of development (Development, Pre-construction, Greenfield, and Brownfield).
what this means for the firm as well as revealing how Infra Invest ensures their partners receive the best possible support and advice from the award-winning company. “We are very pleased and honored to receive such award which constitutes a recognition of the success of Infra Invest model. At Infra Invest, we are proud of the success of our experience and this award encourages us to continue serving our investors and partners. This recognition confirms Infra Invest as a leading regional player in infrastructure and power sectors.
Managing Partner, Abdellatif Nasserdine goes into detail about the firm’s mission, the steps taken to achieve this as well as Infra Invest’s client base.
“The strongest assets of the firm are the experience of its management team and the support of its Sponsor and Investors. The management team is composed of seasoned investment professionals, with strong track-record in investment and infrastructure financing, capable of originating high profile investment opportunities, creating value for investors and investee companies (including build-up opportunities, implementation of the best standards in terms of corporate governance, reporting to shareholders, environmental and social policies). The management team enjoys also a deep knowledge of the targeted markets.”
“As a Fund Manager, our clients are mainly the institutional and longterm investors (including Development Finance Institutions) interested by investment in infrastructure and power projects/assets in Africa offering: 1. An attractive reward/ risk investment profile, 2. Diversified portfolio with strong and positive Economic, Environmental and Social impacts, and 3. Capacity to generate steady and attractive yields for investors.
Africa will continue to stand out as a major source of global growth thanks to long-term robust drivers, such as abundance of resources, young population and labor force growth, fast urbanization, and considerable shortfall in infrastructures resulting in numerous business opportunities. And Morocco is the most attractive country and platform to access the continent, as Abdellatif explains the reasons why the region Infra Invest operates within is ideal for the firm.
“Infra Invest’s mission is to support and contribute to the participation of the private sector in the development and financing of infrastructure sectors in Africa. These sectors are at the heart of the development strategies of the African countries (power, transport & logistics, water, waste management, etc.). “Our footprint materialized with the creation of Argan Infrastructure Fund (ARIF), a closed-ended fund raised in mid-2010, with the support of RMA (Sponsor) and five renowned development financial institutions: AfDB, EIB, IFC, Proparco, and Bio-Invest. ARIF deployed successfully its first Fund with the engagement of a total investment of €50m in a diversified portfolio of five companies covering strategic sectors (including wind, solar and port terminals) and structured to generate value and serve steady cash-flows to investors.”
“An example being, the electricity consumption per capita is close to 400 kWh in Sub Saharan Africa, 75% below that of developing Asia (International Energy Agency, 2014). According to McKinsey Global Institute (MGI, 2016), Africa’s spending on infrastructure reached $80 billion in 2015 (3.5% of GDP), but Africa needs to double this amount to nearly $150 billion (4.5% of GDP) to 2025. Public and private sectors, with the support of multi-lateral agencies, will have to double their efforts to develop more bankable projects, and attract adequate financing to accelerate the infrastructure development: electricity and transportation, but also education and health.
Recently, Infra Invest were awarded the accolade Infrastructure Fund Manager of the Year. When discussing the success, Abdellatif highlights
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“Within the continent, Morocco offers stability, and an attractive business environment supported by well-established regulatory bodies. In terms of investments opportunities in the sectors of infrastructures, the country demonstrates a strong commitment to improve the quality and availability of infrastructures through several ambitious programs. In Transport (rail, roads, airports, ports), the total investment requirement up to 2030 is close to $25 billion. In Energy, 52% of the installed capacity shall use renewable sources by 2035, which involves an additional capacity of 10 GW from renewable sources representing an investment of $10 billion. Morocco launched also a Gaz to Power infrastructure program that would require a total investment of more than $5 billion.” Reflecting on the past twelve months, Ihsane Rihane and Hamza El Kabbaj, both Investment Directors of Infra Invest, inform us of how portfolio companies operate in different sectors: ports, renewable energy (wind and solar) and industry linked to infrastructures. Each of them addresses a strong demand, contributes to the reinforcement of the offer leading to decreasing prices for clients, and has a positive social and environmental impact. “In the port sector, ARIF owns 20% of the shareholding of Mass Céréales Al Maghreb (Morocco), alongside tier-one local and international partners. The company operates two grain terminals under long-term port concession agreements, and demonstrates: a total offloading rate of more than 3 million tons per year, a total storage capacity of 110.000 ton. The company has a substantial impact on the sector’s development through international best practices, reducing significantly demurrage and dwell time, leading to substantial savings in the logistics costs, with an environment and social management at the highest standards. “In the wind sector, ARIF owns 25% of the shareholding of the Khalladi 120 MW wind project, alongside the tier-one international sponsor. The company is the second private-to-private wind farms in Morocco, and probably in Africa. Morocco is the first country in Africa to implement a legal framework allowing the private sector to sell electricity from renewable sources directly to private consumers, with the intermediation of the national grid for the transmission. This initiative allowed unlocking both the private initiative and the potential of renewable energy of the country in order to meet with a growing electricity demand almost at 7% p.a. in average, and improve the energy mix of the country. The revenues of Khalladi project are secured through long-term contracts with strong private industrials off takers with competitive tariffs compared to the national utility prices. The project contributes to the decrease of the energy cost to the clients and to the country, and has a positive social and environment impact (social program, job creation, 144,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided, etc.). As for the wider industry, Abdellatif Nasserdine notes on the challenges facing the industry as well future developments and ways in which Infra Invest will adapt around these. “The challenges facing the industry of private investments in infrastructure in the region are the project development cycles that require long term investments. Early stage exposure is critical for deal sourcing and portfolio development. Infra Invest model allows a broad investment in different sectors and hands-on approach in term of project development and structuring.”
Company: Infra Invest Contact: Abdellatif Nasserdine (Managing Partner), and Ihsane Rihane (Investment Director) Email: a.nasserdine@infrainvest.ma i.rihane@infrainvest.ma Address: 30, Bd Moulay Youssef, 20 000 Casablanca, Morocco Phone: + 212 (0) 5 22 42 91 33 33
1705WF05
Wealth & Finance International
Improving Healthcare in Pakistan Dodhys Agencies was established in 1960, by Abdullah Dodhy’s late grandfather. It was then passed on to his dad, and now to Abdullah Dodhy who is the firm’s current CEO. Following his remarkable achievement in attaining the CEO of the Year 2017 – Pakistan award, we interviewed the man himself to find out more about his company and his insights into being a CEO.
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ince its inception, Dodhys Agencies has been trading mainly in healthcare and safety products in Pakistan. They represent several well-known companies that are working extensively in healthcare and invest heavily in R&D. They have a very profound internal system of evaluating products, starting off from their production methods and down to how it affects the patient in various aspects. This way, they ensure that the products they introduce in Pakistan have a positive impact on the patient’s health.
flow throughout the company. The ‘tone’ of the company is set by the higher management. Therefore, keeping yourself motivating is not just important for yourself, but also important for the team as well.
Dodhys Agencies has also become the parent company of several other companies, who are active in various fields. These include companies working in energy, chemicals, textiles and retail healthcare. These companies, including Dodhys Agencies, are now part of what is known as ‘Dodhys Group’.
“Obviously, when running a company this is certainly not void of challenges. The biggest problems I had to overcome throughout this time is that when I started, I realised that the rotation of money within the company is very important. I think that this is a direct effect on the business and on the growth of the business. We believe that money which leaves the company, evaporates. Therefore, we are always interested in re-investing our profits.
“Personally, I renew my motivation by reading up on some of my inspirations, such as the late Steve Jobs. I also, enjoy spending a good amount of quality time with friends, which I think is important to relieve stress every now and then.”
The current CEO, Abdullah Dodhy is eager to begin the interview by sharing his thoughts on how it feel to have won the CEO of the Year 2017 award?
“This is obviously easier said than done. Early on, I realised the importance of this aspect of the business. I had to rewire myself to do this and to do this properly. This was one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome. Other than this, our business has could grow at a substantial rate, to fuel this growth we have needed investment. So, finding, suitable investors at these points in time where we knew their investment would lead to more growth has been essential.”
“Well, as a teenager I always wanted to get into business and I worked from young age to gain experience. I have always been inspired by business people who have achieved significantly in the field. Winning this award obviously, means a lot to me. The feeling is overwhelming. “At Dodhys Agencies, we believe that team work is essential for the growth of the business. This award has been awarded to me no doubt, but in spirit I believe that this is deserved equally by the people working in our company. Their relentless commitment to the work we do, and their mutual agreeing to the principals we have at Dodhys Agencies, is the reason of this award. I sincerely thank every member in my team.
“I believe my greatest strengths are a good utilisation of time and the directive action needed to be taken for the company. Steve Jobs once said, very wisely that you should always ask yourself - are you doing the most important thing you could be doing at any point, as CEO. I believe in this concept very firmly. The fact that I can do this all the time and I align a day’s work based on this same philosophy, is one of the main attributes I think, which are the contributors to our success.
“I would also like to thank some other special people who have helped this company, indirectly through me. I would like to mention a very special friend, Semul who has been there along the way, at every step of the way. I thank you for that.”
Abdullah then outlines something of his work as CEO and the types of clients with whom he works with, including the business and your ongoing strategy and key principles he adheres to.
Abdullah then reveals how he keeps himself motivated and positive as a successful CEO plus, the challenges he has had to overcome to be a successful in this senior position.
“As CEO, my job is just ensuring that the systems of the company are followed. Ensuring all departments are working effectively and efficiently is one of my main duties as CEO. Apart from that, I believe that another key role I do play as CEO, is to analyse what is the next step for the company and how can we grow, plus considering other avenues we should be considering to further improve our services and products.
“Running a group of companies does get stressful at times, and I do believe that keeping yourself motivated always is something essential as CEO. Corporate culture, from the top level of management, tends to
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“Dodhys Agencies deals with all kinds of hospitals, where we encounter many medical professionals with whom we must interact. That is the main reason, why we try to recruit professionals who are related to the health industry. “After very extensive market research, we have realised that the only way to improve healthcare in Pakistan, is to introduce affordable and technically sound healthcare solutions. Also, we have realised that mortality rates are high because there is absolutely no concept of telemedicine here. So, we are working on big projects related to that, closely with the government of Pakistan. “At Dodhys Agencies, we believe that honesty in our work, relentless efforts to improve our service and products as well as maintaining austerity in good times strengthens, capitalises and accelerates the development of the company – plus it averts the bitterly drastic adjustments in times of crisis. However, most importantly we believe our most asset is time. Nothing is more important than utilising the time we are given in the most efficient way possible.” In closing, Abdullah is pleased to reveal the role staff play in the success of your Dodhys Agencies/ “The staff is the backbone of the company. Dodhys Agencies is an organisation and every person in it, plays a vital role for the development of the company. Teamwork is essential for business growth. As I have mentioned earlier, this award goes to them as much as it goes to me. We would be nowhere without over hard working and dedicated team.”
Company: Dodhys Agencies Name: Abdullah Dodhy Email: abdullah@dodhys.com; operations@dodhysagencies.com Web Address: www.dodhysagencies.com Address: 14 B Davis Road, Lahore 54000, Pakistan Telephone: +92 42 3637 3634
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1707WF03
Wealth & Finance International
The Realm of Investment Angel Capital Group was created in 2009, to focus on helping high growth companies realise their potential through both knowledge and investment. To find out more, we interviewed the firm’s Investment Director, Alexander Sleigh.
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ngel Capital Group’s experienced management team are established leaders in the development of new angel-led early stage investment initiatives. At the same time, they can leverage nearly 30 years of investment experience through their London Business Angels network.
“ACV established and operates a small venture fund focused on early stage technology businesses, seeking between £150,000 to £2 million. The London Business Angels EIS Round Table Fund is the first of its kind in the UK. This EIS approved fund offers an innovative approach for investing alongside The London business angels network of highnet-worth angel investors.
From their headquarters in central London, they work both nationally and internationally, providing access to leading-edge services designed to improve investment readiness, facilitate access to early stage investment and create opportunities for the development of new early stage co-investment funds, with a key focus on the angel investment market.
“This new FCA regulated fund, offers important co-investment funding alongside LBA’s angel deals. The fund aims to act as a catalyst for investment over the coming year, while also allowing LBA’s members to spread their investment across several our carefully selected companies. To date, LBA has raised six EIS approved funds and a SEIS fund. You can find the full details of the portfolio here at: www.lbangels.co.uk/ portfolio.”
The firm’s Investment Director, Alexander Sleigh explains to us more about the businesses that come under the Angel Capital Group umbrella, as the interview launches.
London Business Angels London Business Angels is one of the oldest, most respected and successful Business Angel Investment Networks in the UK. In closing, Alexander provides us with more detail on this specific point.
“Angel Capital Group is composed of two businesses. Angel Capital Ventures is uniquely able to address equity gap funding, bringing extensive experience in structuring and building early stage Venture Capital and co-investment funds, with a key focus on leveraging the angel market.
“Since 1982, they have been connecting small and medium sized enterprises with high growth potential plus investment through our exclusive network of seasoned business angel investors.
“London Business Angels is one of longest established, most respected and successful Business Angel Investment Networks in the UK. Since 1982, LBA has been connecting high growth small and medium sized enterprises with equity finance through our exclusive network of experienced business angel investors.
“We help innovating early stage companies raise equity finance of between £100,000 and £1 million through our exclusive and experienced membership of angel investors. Since 2000, our investors have funded over 175 companies, amounting to a total of £35 million invested.
“Angel Capital Group works nationally and internationally, providing access to leading-edge services designed to improve investment readiness, facilitate access to early stage investment, and create opportunities for the development of new early stage co-investment funds, with a key focus on the angel investment market. The Angel Capital Institute provides a repository of information and news related to Angel Capital Group’s wide ranging activities and experiences.”
“LBA draws its deal flow not only from London and South East, but also from any part of the UK through its network of deal flow sources. The London Business Angels expert team carefully selects 40-50 companies to present to our investors each year, from up to 1000 plans reviewed annually. Typically, the network raises £4 million worth of new equity per year. “London Business Angels is a founding member of the British Business Angels Association, the industry’s best practice trade association. LBA is also a member of EBAN, the European Business Angels Network. London Business Angels has been part of Angel Capital Group since its creation in 2009.”
Angel Capital Ventures Angel Capital Ventures is uniquely able to address equity gap funding, Alexander tells us. Indeed, the team have extensive experience in structuring and building early stage Venture Capital funds, with a key focus on leveraging the angel market.
Angels in the City Angels in the City aims to increase the awareness of individuals to become investors, Alexander underlines. He also tells us that they aim to bring their financial capacity and business experience to invest in innovative, entrepreneurs with high growth potential in the city fringes, including the exciting Tech City cluster.
“Whilst at GLE, the team launched the UK’s first government backed £5 million Early Growth Angel Co-investment Fund, London Seed Capital and co-founded the UK’s first angel-led enterprise capital fund, the £30 million Seraphim Capital fund.
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“The City of London Corporation is working with London Business Angels and Lloyds TSB Commercial, the oldest and most established angel group, bringing 30 years of investing experience and capacity building of angel investors. “Individuals working in the city have the potential to become angel investors, drawing on their financial capacity and extensive business experience to provide investment into city fringe businesses with high growth potential. “Business Angels not only brings much needed financial resources to the table, but also business skills and experience, market contacts and strategic advice, thereby significantly increasing the potential of the investee company to achieve success. Large numbers of entrepreneurs in the city fringe areas are developing innovative businesses, which offer important investment opportunities.” Please visit the Angels in the City site, at: www.angelsinthecity.org.uk
Company: Angel Capital Group Name: Alexander Sleigh Email: enquiries@angelcapital.co.uk Web Address: www.angelcapital.co.uk Address: 100 Pall Mall London, SW1Y 5NQ UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7321 5673
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1706WF04
Wealth & Finance International
The Best-in-Class International Services Established in 1980 in the United States, COGENCY GLOBAL, formerly National Corporate Research, Ltd. (NCR), is a professional registered agent firm that provides responsive nationwide and international statutory representation, corporate and secured transaction services. We interviewed the firm’s VP of Product Management, Karen Redman, and Manager of the London Operations, Pushkala Sivaramakrishnan, to learn more about the firm and their important roles within it.
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OGENCY GLOBAL works with large law firms, nationally and internationally, as well as large in-house legal departments, assisting with corporate filings, corporate representation (registered agent) services, transactional services, compliance services and related support services.
Pushkala Sivaramakrishnan is the manager of COGENCY GLOBAL’S newest international office in London. Pushkala explains to us her dayto-day responsibilities. “My day-to-day responsibilities include managing a portfolio of clients in the UK and Europe, ensuring highest level of service delivery, building new business relationships in the region and managing the office staff. Our office plays a critical role in creating synergy between our global teams.”
Karen Redman impresses us on the successes the firm has had in an upbeat start to the interview.
“Being in the service industry and working with legal professionals in law firms or corporate legal departments, we need to bring our ‘A’ game every single day. We know that as large deals are being executed worldwide by our clients, our timeliness, professionalism and responsiveness is instrumental in making their deals/transactions successful. We believe that we have the best staff in our industry. We also take pride in customising our services in every way possible to enable our clients to succeed. We believe in ‘substance over form’ and our staff is always willing to go the second mile for the client. We attribute our success to our highly motivated staff that has the ability to think on its feet.”
“In the last decade, our firm has been offering more international services and assisting our clients with cross border transactions. Our process agent service is a high focus area that, on business days, provides 24-hour coverage for our domestic and international clients. Attorneys who work late hours to complete a transaction or prepare for closing, can rely on our global team to help with their process agent needs, to satisfy a condition precedent about their cross-border transactions.” “We have had tremendous success working with aviation firms, leasing houses and aircraft financiers that often require a New York or UK process agent in connection aircraft lease, purchase/financing transaction. Our model for this service is unique to our industry, particularly the 24-hour coverage that we offer, our high value pricing structure and our exceptionally trained multilingual staff.”
Concerning client feedback and the challenges ahead for the firm and the wider industry, Pushkala concludes by offering her insights into both of these important issues. “Our clients think of us as a service provider with high integrity and a commitment to deliver ‘The Right Response at the Right Time, Every Time SM’. They also consider us as partners in completing important challenges facing them in today’s business landscape. Our team works very hard to understand the nature of our clients’ transactions, so that we can offer the highest quality service possible. They are appreciative of our capabilities in so many different countries, our quick turn-around time, our reasonable prices and the high value of our services.”
“Our international services, especially, our international secured transactions services, have been a huge success among our law firm clients. As our clients work on transactions that involve overseas entities, the international due diligence searches create an important challenge for legal professionals. Whether they need a bankruptcy search in Australia or to form an entity in Mexico, they know that they count on COGENCY GLOBAL to retrieve the information as efficiently as possible.” Karen and Pushkala tell us about their roles in the firm, plus of course, the critical role their staff play in the success of the organisation.
“The challenges faced by our firm are no different than those facing the legal service industry in general. We are constantly working towards meeting the increased worldwide demand for our services by expanding our product lines and expertise in a diverse range of services. This means we must stay up to date with the changes across the globe and the resulting impact on our client’s transactions.”
Karen informs us “I am the VP of Product Management, specialising in international corporate services. On a day to day basis, I am responsible for the knowledge base that delivers the best-in-class international services in several categories including international formations, compliance, registered office/agent and secured transactions. This also involves building an international agent network and work processes for each product.”
“Effective from May 1st this year, as part of firm-wide rebranding, the name of our firm changed from National Corporate Research Limited to COGENCY GLOBAL INC. and our name in London is now COGEN-
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CY GLOBAL (UK) LIMITED. For those clients that have known us as National Corporate Research Ltd, we are the same firm, with the same management team, same global teams and we continue to offer the same value with our new corporate identity.�
Company: COGENCY GLOBAL INC. Name: Pushkala Sivaramakrishnan Manager of London Operations Email: pushkala@cogencyglobal.uk Web Address: www.cogencyglobal.com Address: 6 Bevis Marks London, EC3A 7BA Telephone: D: +44 (0) 203.786.1091 O: +44 (0) 203.786.1090
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1706WF08
Wealth & Finance International
Thoughtful, Helpful and Personal Since 1889, the professionals at Bryn Mawr Trust have focused on helping individuals, families, businesses and organisations create, manage, preserve and transfer wealth. We invited the firm’s John Harrison to write about the firm’s work, including some of the wealth management services they offer.
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ryn Mawr Bank Corp, headquartered in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania was founded in 1889, has $3.29 billion in corporate assets and $11.73 billion in wealth assets under management, administration, supervision and brokerage at 3/31/17.
Amongst our many services, we provide wealth management services. With our knowledge, experience, a history of service and people who excel at what they do; it’s what makes Bryn Mawr Trust a world-class wealth management and investment firm, earning our clients’ trust for over a century. We provide a full range of services—investment strategies, trust oversight, philanthropic advising, private banking and more—with just one focus: to protect and grow your wealth.
Bryn Mawr Trust operates 25 full service retail bank locations, 8 limited access retirement community locations in Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania and New Castle County, Delaware and one limited service branch banking location in Hershey, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. BMT also serves clients through its wealth, private banking and insurance divisions in addition to leasing, mortgage and commercial lending divisions.
One aspect of our wealth management services is investment management; indeed, we offer goal-driven investment solutions. With a client-focused approach to investing, Bryn Mawr Trust provides sound, individually designed investment strategies to meet your specific income and growth objectives. We combine the global reach of Wall Street with the personal approach of Main Street, right in your own backyard.
Delivering professional service just that way, all the time, is the unique principle that guides Bryn Mawr Trust’s activities. It’s all done by some of the best financial experts in the region.
A personal wealth advisory team works with you to determine your requirements for income, growth, liquidity, and preservation of capital, while analysing your risk tolerance, time and tax constraints. The financial picture that emerges serves as a framework for a portfolio that fulfils your investment objectives. • We determine risk and liquidity preferences based on your specific needs and investment goals; • Utilising a unique investment selection process, we evaluate companies and funds (managed externally and internally) to fit your growth and fixed income needs; • Working as independent advisors, we can give clients objective advice and choose investment options to build a diversified portfolio; • We are proactive and continually review your portfolio to monitor risk and return; • We look for high-quality investment options that provide consistent growth over time and; • We communicate regularly with clients, providing updates, trends and other important financial news as well as quarterly reports.
Our value proposition is straightforward: • Provide the highest quality banking, investment and insurance services; • Maintain a team of well-trained professionals who understand that a friendly and prompt service is of the utmost importance to our clients; • Ensure that our clients have access to senior management, including the president and; • We have been an independent local bank and trust company for over a century - and we continue to be committed to making the Philadelphia area a better place - for residents and businesses. Bryn Mawr Trust is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bryn Mawr Bank Corporation, a one-bank holding company publicly held and traded on NASDAQ (BMTC). Our headquarters are in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 12 miles west of Philadelphia. Our employees make Bryn Mawr Trust a great place to work. Here, you can make an impact. We are focused and committed to our people, leadership, customer experience, operational excellence and recognition.
In closing, our approach to wealth management is simple. We partner with you. A personal wealth advisory team, including credentialed professionals and leaders in their field, works with you to develop a wealth management strategy designed to address those needs and goals.
Most people use multiple accounts to best fill their differing short term and long term savings needs. No matter your need, you’re sure to find the right mix in these FDIC-insured accounts, with a range of interest rates, terms and access to your money.
We work with your lawyers, CPAs and other counsel involved with your personal wealth, if appropriate. An additional point is that, as in every good partnership, we are in it for the long haul. We stay engaged with you, continually reviewing your plan and updating it to fit in with your changing needs.
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Company: Bryn Mawr Bank Corporation Name: John Harrison Email: JHarrison@bmtc.com Web Address: www.bmtc.com Address: 20 North Waterloo Road, Devon, Pennsylvania, 193 33 USA Telephone: +1 610 581 4750
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1706WF10
Wealth & Finance International
The Complex Nature of Life Wienner & Gould, P. C. is a litigation boutique with an emphasis on complex business litigation, primarily in the areas of automotive, bankruptcy, class action, contracts, employment, franchise, shareholder, trade secret, securities and banking litigation. After their success in the 2017 Best in Dispute Resolution Awards, we interviewed Dan K. Beitz to find out more about the firm and his own career background.
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ienner & Gould, P. C’s attorneys are highly regarded as practical and creative trial and appellate specialists. Judges and opponents respect the firm’s work, because of their excellent work product and winning strategies. Clients, both large and small, count on this firm to be their advocates. In terms of their expertise, they act as your agent and advocate during all stages of a case, the first stage of which is pre-trial dispositive motions as Dan K. Beitz explains to us.
The firm’s attorneys have extensive first-chair trial experience representing Fortune 500 corporations, closely held companies, and individuals. They are supported by an experienced and talented staff and state-of-the-art technology, which permits the firm to effectively manage massive volumes of information pertaining to their cases. They work as a team to determine how best to achieve a significant and meaningful result for you. One seasoned member of the firm’s staff today is Daniel Beitz. In terms of his career background, he graduated from Michigan State University in political science in 1988 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1992. After admission to the bar in 1992, Mr. Beitz joined the Detroit firm of Kitch, Sauerbier, Druchas, Wagner & Kenney, P.C. as a member of the insurance coverage team. At Kitch, he specialised in commercial general liability and errors and omissions policy analysis.
“W&G’s attorneys appreciate the time and cost associated with trying a lawsuit. In every appropriate case, we quickly and expertly collect relevant evidence and seek to obtain a pre-trial judgment in favour of our clients. In one recent case, for example, a prominent automotive client discharged its counsel from a large Detroit law firm in mid-litigation and retained W&G to get faster and more efficient results in a high-profile federal lawsuit brought by three dealers against this manufacturer.
Mr. Beitz also was appointed managing and contributing editor of the Michigan Insurance Bulletin, a firm publication. In closing, Mr. Beitz tells us more about his career background.
“Shortly after becoming involved in this case, W&G’s attorneys collected helpful deposition testimony and filed a motion seeking dismissal of all claims for damages allegedly totalling $8 million. Persuaded by W&G’s creative arguments, the federal court granted summary judgment in our client’s favour, enabling this manufacturer to avoid significant liability exposure at trial as well as ‘big firm’ litigation costs.”
“In 1994, I formed my own firm, Daniel K. Beitz, P.C., where I represented a broad range of small and large businesses, specialising in commercial, employment and tort litigation. In 2004, I joined the Erskine Law Group, P.C., to focus solely on automotive litigation. At Erskine Law Group, I gained substantial recognition from clients and peers for my success in the trial courts, appellate courts, and before private arbitration tribunals. I was also involved in sales tax recovery litigation.
Dan then goes on to detail the next two stages of how the firm can assist you with a case, around the areas of trials & arbitrations and appeals. “Admittedly, however, we are happiest in the courtroom trying a case before a judge and jury. W&G attorneys won’t push you to settle a meritorious claim or defence. In one case, for example, our client relied upon our advice in deciding to reject several attractive settlements offers and then proceeded at trial to recover a multi-million-dollar judgment against a large Detroit hospital that was more than double the amount of the highest offered settlement.
“I certainly have a broad range of litigation experience, as both a first and second chair trial counsel. I have handled hundreds of commercial, employment and tort matters, before state and federal trial courts. This includes appellate practice before the appeals courts in several states. I have also practiced before numerous public agencies, including tax tribunals, unemployment agencies and the Worker’s Compensation Agency. “I have advised auto suppliers and vehicle manufacturers on both public policy and regulatory compliance issues. I was certified by the U.S. government as a neutral EO investigator and was retained by both the Social Security Administration and the Transportation Security Agency to conduct independent inquiries of employment discrimination claims.
“In another case, W&G’s attorneys, through effective cross-examination at trial, compelled plaintiff’s own retained expert to contradict and ultimately undermine that party’s $6 million dollar claim against a national lease finance firm. “We also capably handle substantial appeals. In one recent appeal, before the Michigan Supreme Court, W&G briefed a very complicated issue involving principles of statutory construction. The result was that we obtained a favourable ruling for a large automotive firm, that potentially will affect every future fraud claim filed in the State of Michigan.”
“I am also a member of the Michigan State Bar and a member of the American Bar Association. I am admitted to practice before all Michigan state courts, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and I have been admitted to practice in other state and federal jurisdictions. I served on the board of directors of Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind, a non-profit recreational charity.”
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July 2017
Company: Wienner & Gould, P.C. Name: Dan K. Beitz Email: info@wiennergould.com Web Address: www.wiennergould.com Address: 950 University Dr., Ste. 350, Rochester, MI 48307 USA Telephone: +1 248 841 9400
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Wealth & Finance International
A One-Stop Legal Service HADS Partnership Law Office is a prominent and professional law firm in Indonesia. HADS Partnership Law Office provides an effective, practical and innovative legal service to national as well as multinational companies. As a proud winner of the Best Debt Recovery Law Office 2017 award, we interviewed Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan, Managing Partner of HADS Partnership Law Office to discover more about the array of legal services the firm offers.
H
ADS Partnership Law Office believes that every country has unique challenges and opportunities, including Indonesia. As an Indonesian law office established for 12 years, they have a strong reputation and understand the legal challenges and opportunities in the region today.
“We believe that the success of a law office is determined by a professional team, to meet the needs of each client. The success of this law office itself means the success of its team. HADS Partnership Law Office is supported by an integrated lawyer team, who are always reliable in helping to meet the needs of clients at any time. We develop and enhance our team’s ability to continuously manage, through seminars, training and workshops.
Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan reveals one of the challenges the firm is facing, before providing an interesting overview of HADS Partnership Law Office
“Almost all the clients we serve are companies, from national to multinational level, with various strategic issues. In every legal service that we offer, we always provide a commercial approach, coupled with the most effective, practical and innovative strategy to meet all the legal needs of the clients. We understand that it is substantial to render a legal service that is consistent with the business as well as the commercial interest of our clients.”
“One of the challenges - is the long period of court proceedings in Indonesia – before obtaining a final and binding court decision. Thus, HADS Partnership Law Office always arranges and initiates an effective and practical legal strategy to overcome any challenges, including maximising the negotiation and out-of-court legal settlement. “HADS Partnership Law Office provides a practical and innovative legal service, to both national and multinational companies. To fulfil our valuable clients’ needs, HADS Partnership Law Office delivers a one-stop legal service and we offer the qualities of professionalism, reliability and trustworthiness. Our firm takes a business and commercial approach in all that we do, by providing efficient solutions, as well as quick responses and reporting.
Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan then moves the conversation towards her thoughts on the firm being awarded the Best Debt Recovery Law Office 2017 award. “HADS Partnership Law Office would like to thank you for the award as Best Debt Recovery Law Office 2017 award, as one of the most reputable and trusted institutions. We are very proud and honoured to receive this award, indeed it confirms the work of HADS Partnership Law Office as an expert law firm that specialises in debt recovery.
“HADS Partnership Law Office established in 2005 and today, we are supported by several professional and seasoned lawyers. We have 12 years’ worth of experience, or more than 100,000 hours between us, which of course gives a tremendous strength to our professional legal services. Having our main office in the central business district of Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta, gives us easy business access in terms of the valued clients we serve.”
“The award, Best Debt Recovery Law Office 2017 award, is a manifestation of the clients’ satisfaction who have experienced our debt recovery legal services. The award is also dedicated to our valuable clients due to their trust and never ending support.
Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan then explains the legal areas the firm specialises in, which includes debt recovery, commercial litigation, corporate matter, anti-monopoly and unfair business competition, as well as in intellectual property law.
“This award means that we have responsibility to elevate the firm’s encouragement and motivation, in maintaining the satisfaction of the clients. We can do this by continuously developing and improving the capabilities as well as the quality of our legal services, especially in the field of debt recovery.”
“One of the areas that the firm focuses on and continues to develop, is debt recovery, because we believe that the smooth flow of finance is a basic need in the running of any business. With the firm’s proven experience and expertise, we can provide an effective and innovative legal strategy, to help solve the bad debt of clients, with positive results every time.”
In closing, Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan reveals the firm’s plans for the rest of this year and beyond. “The vision of HADS Partnership Law Office is to become one of the largest law offices in Indonesia that provides a one-stop-legal service, always meeting the needs of our clients. HADS Partnership Law Office will stay committed in maintaining the trust of the clients, by sharing more knowledge through consultation and in-house legal training. Over the years, HADS Partnership Law Office has proudly grown consistently, to realise our vision.”
Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan then reveals the crucial role that staff plays in the success of the firm and then details the nature of their client base.
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Company: HADS Partnership Law Office Name: Mr. Sugiharta Gunawan (Managing Partner) Email: sugiharta.gunawan@hadspartnership.com Web Address: www.hadspartnership.com Address: Multivision Tower, 5th Floor Jl. Kuningan Mulia Kav. 9B Komplek Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta 12980 - Indonesia Telephone: +62 21 2283 7970/71 (hunting)
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Wealth & Finance International
Best IT Executive Networking Solution 2017 IT4 CIO Network Technology is a Curitiba based company specializing in the development of relationships between IT executives. We profile the firm to find out more.
I
T4 CIO assumes the role of interface between technology providers and customers. Therefore, more than commercial relations, the firm promotes partnerships where products, services and, above all, experiences and knowledge are
Ultimately, it is ITV CIO’s ongoing focus will remain its collaborative approach, as well as continuing to offer excellence to every one of its clients.
shared. Company: IT4 CIO Contact: Kurt Matzenbacher Email: Kurt@it4cio.com Address: Avenida Cândido de Abreu, 526 - Loja 14, Civic Center – Curitiba, 80530-905, Brazil Phone: 55 41 3202 5930
In order to share its knowledge and expertise with the wider industry, ITV CIO holds events with the objective of promoting the professional update and promoting the network among the participants. Among the firm’s latest innovations is ITVisionTV, the first online communication channel created exclusively to serve the Information Technology market. On the air since April 2011, the channel stands out for offering a picture of the IT universe with the look of those who participate directly in the day to day of the sector. In addition, the programs are produced in high definition and can also be accessed by smartphones and tablets.
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