Donnie Foster
Kevin Laws
Mark G Pretorius
Richard Allan Horning
Brief presentations from 10 Finnish companies.

Donnie Foster - Formerly HP - Donnie set up the Indian operation for HP and is currently a consultant helping set up relationships with technical groups in India, Russia and other countries.
Richard Allan Horning - Tomlinson Zisko LLP Richard is a frequent speaker on globalization in US and Europe. His firm has great expertise in intellectual property issues.

Mark G Pretorius - Blumburg Capital Mark Pretorius has 17 years of experience managing international information technology companies. Before joining Blumberg Capital in 1998, Pretorius structured global technology investments with the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Technology (DIST), and held senior management positions at Datakor International, Unisys, Burroughs, and MDS Qantel.

Kevin Laws, Pacrim Venture Partners (PVP). PVP is a Palo Alto venture fund that invests in US tech firms and connects them with Asian markets. He previously headed up a CSC technology office in Germany and taught economics to incoming MIT MBA students for several years.

Don Steiny - Moderator - Don works with language and culture to help people develop social capital and effective cultures.

During the 1990's businesspeople focused on shareholder value to the exclusion of other stakeholders. The result of this is that there is much distrust of businesses. Globalization is thought by some as being just a way of exploiting developing nations, degrading environmental laws and bypassing national sovereignty.

The fact is that many businesspeople are conscious of the effect that business has on the world and see it as a positive force. Trade between countries improves the economies of both countries, and builds networks of relationships that promote stability. Businesses are better off with happy, healthy and productive workers and ultimately that improves the bottom line. The forces that cause globalization to move forward, better communication, better transportation and more open societies are exactly the forces that create transparency that open businesses to scrutiny in their labor practices and environmental records. Being good neighbors is good business.

Before WWI, the world was perhaps even more globalized than it is now. The ending of that and the period of isolationism that followed resulted in exacerbating the Great Depression, and led to WWII. Globalization could be ended by trade wars and xenophobia.

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