Ex - Im bank annual conference 2011 - Awards ceremony

Announcer- Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Export Import Bank Director Diane Farrell to present the 2011 Export Import Bank Awards. Diane Farrell - Fred you forgot your plane. Announcer- This will just be a few moments then we will break for workshops. If everyone could please stay seated the award ceremony will be brief and then we will proceed to workshops. Thank you. Diane Farrell – While we are setting up, though, I am going to take a point of privilege as a member of the Board of Directors and ask you to join me in thanking our incredible host and fearless leader at Ex-Im Bank, Frank P. Hochberg. (applause) And since so many of us recognize the name Lillian Vernon I would like to recognize Fred's incredible mother Lillian and sister Lillian as well as his brother David, if you could give a wave. I'm so pleased that you're here. Didn't your boy do good just a few minutes ago. You just heard Fred talk about the importance of these businesses and you can hear, certainly, the emotion in which he made his remarks, the sense of pride and the sense of excitement about the companies that we do business with, and we're so pleased to be partners in that effort. And what we often talk about as we are on the road and we're promoting the national export initiative, is we talk about success stories. So very often if you've been in our presentations and you've participated, you will see slides that feature particular businesses that really merit the kind of recognition, but also a sense of connection that other exporters may have in a market when they see how successful one of their fellow residents has done, especially working with Ex-Im. So the individuals here who represent the companies that are being honored this afternoon, are those success stories. And I hope that you noticed on your seats when you came in to be seated for lunch, a biography about each of these companies and I'm not going to read through biographies for you, you're certainly perfectly capable of doing that. I'm going to give you just a few comments about each and then we are going to invite them to come up to receive the award from our Chairman. But you also notice that there are actually people behind the companies that are represented here. These are some of the individuals who worked on these transactions. And so we were pleased to acknowledge those Ex-Im workers who really are tirelessly trying to do Government at the Speed of Business, Mr. Chairman, as you are fond of saying. And they deserve recognition too as it relates to these specific transactions. So our first honoree, who is the Small Business Exporter of the Year is Wallquest. They are located in Wayne Pennsylvania and were founded in 1976. They are designers and manufacturers of innovative wall covering designs with production facilities in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. And what is really neat about this company is that their facilities use only water based inks and all papers are sourced from companies certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, one of the few FSC certified manufacturers of wall coverings in the world. As a user of Ex- Im's capital loan guarantee since 2008 with PNC Bank as the guarantee lender, Wallquest has seen its exports soar 76 %, over 17 million dollars in 2010 alone. It has approximately 90 foreign buyers in over 50 countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Brazil, Russia and the United Arab Emerits. Primarily due to exports, this family owned company's workforce has grown from 80 to more than 150 people at facilities in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. Congratulations. (Applause) Our Lender of the Year this year is Silicon Valley Bank based in Santa Clara, California. Silicon Valley Bank provides commercial banking services to emerging growth and mature companies in technology, life science, private equity and premium wine industries. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Santa Clara, the company serves clients around the world through 26 US offices and 5 international operations. Silicon Valley Bank is a long-time active participant in the Ex-Im Bank's working capital guarantee program. In fiscal year 2010, SVB helped make Ex-Im Bank guaranteed loans to 75 small businesses, the highest among all working capital participating lenders. Silicon Valley Bank enabled its clients to generate estimated export sales of 1.4 billion to more than 30 countries and supported 6,400 existing and new US jobs. Congratulations. (applause) Our Broker of the Year this year is Global Business Solutions based in Seattle, Washington. Global Business Solutions specializes in risk mitigation for US exporters. As one of Ex-Im Bank's key business partners, GBS has brokered a total of almost 90 Ex-Im Bank's policies, 53 in fiscal year 2010 alone. A majority of these are supporting small businesses. One example of their success was the saving of 33 jobs at one North Carolina lumber company, an industry that has been hard hit in this economy. Due to a limited time frame an urgent from GBS to help the company was sent to Ex-Im Bank. As a result, and again moving at the speed of business, Ex-Im Bank gave an expedited review of the credit and approved the multi buyer insurance policy to the company for exporting to China, keeping 33 employees on the payroll. Congratulation. (applause) Our Sub-Saharan Africa Exporter of the Year is Planson International Corporation based in New Gloucester, Maine. Planson International is a woman owned business, is a supplier to the United Nations, non government organizations, the US government, international finance institution borrowers, USAID projects and emerging market private sector clients. And I do have to say this is one of the most intriguing transactions we have done this year. Planson used 1.5 million dollars in revolving working capital loan guarantee from Ex-Im Bank to export computers and software to Sudan for use during the historic referendum for Southern Sudan independence. This technology was used for voter registration, demographic data analysis, vote tallying and post referendum policy development. In addition, Ex-Im Bank's financing helped Planson's 2010 export sales increase 20% to over 12 million and its full time workforce, therefore, doubled. And I should add this is the first transaction that anyone can think of in Ex-Im's history that actually required a Presidential waiver in order for the bank to do this. So congratulation for contributing to democracy in Southern Sudan. (applause) Our next awardee is in the Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year category. You heard a lot about this company just a few moments ago from our Chairman. This is Gamesa Technology Corporation. They began manufacturing wind turbines in the United States in 2006 and has annual production capacity of more than 1,000 megawatts per year coming from its facility in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania and Evansburg, Pennsylavania. The company has a total US workforce of 900 employees, approximately 8 of whom work in Pennsylvania. In February 2011, Gamesa opened its offshore wind technology center in Chesapeake, Virginia for designing its first offshore wind turbine here in the United States. Ex-Im Bank authorized a 159 million dollar direct loan in 2010 to finance Gamesa's export of 51 wind turbines that represents 102 megawatts for the Sara Dehula Wind Farm, the first utility wind project in Honduras. It is one of the largest wind powered projects in Central America. Congratulations. (applause) And our final awardees, who receive the Deal of the Year award are a little company you may have hear about, known as Ford Motor Company, located in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford is using a 250 million dollar Ex-Im guaranteed revolving working capital line of credit to finance approximately 3 billion dollars in export sales of over 200 thousand vehicles to buyers in Canada and Mexico. This transaction will enable Ford and hundreds of its small business suppliers to support thousands of high paying American jobs and maintain competitiveness in global markets. More than 650 companies in 41 states produce parts and components for the vehicles being exported. These exports represent approximately 15% of Ford's production and the vehicles will be manufactured in plants located in Chicago, Illinois; in Dearborn, in Wayne, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; Loisville, Kentucky and Avon Lake, Ohio. Ford had not previously financed short term exports from the US to Canada and Mexico. By utilizing these vehicles as collateral, Ford is making strategic use of Ex-Im's formula based working capital line of credit. As a result it is increasing its foreign sales and supporting high quality American jobs. Congratulations, Ford. (applause) That concludes our award ceremony for small businesses this year. We invite you to take a very short break and then do join us for these incredible panels. I know we have all been energized by the speakers that we've heard from already today and I guarantee that the afternoon promises to be equally as exciting and satisfying. Thank you so much. (applause)