Canadian Council for the Americas

 André Nudelman – Chairman
Mr. Nudelman is the President of LACES – Canadian Education Services Latin America Ltd, President of Addexo Consulting and Formula Trade; Advisory Board Member at McRae Institute for International Management at Capilano College; Advisory Board Member at Wireless 2000; Member of VANTEC – Vancouver Angel Network on Technology at SFU; Member of BC Director’s Club; voted Brazilian Franchising National Leader in 2002 and 2003 and in Education in 2004 and 2006.

 Steve Kaufmann
Steve Kaufmann, author of The Linguist and founder of www.thelinguist.com, shares his experiences in learning to speak 9 languages and on language learning in general. Mr. Kaufmann graduated from l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris in 1966. He spent seven years with the Canadian Diplomatic Service in Hong Kong, where he learned Mandarin, and in Tokyo where he learned Japanese. Since 1974 he has been involved in the wood business, having established KP Wood Ltd. in 1987. Three years ago he founded The Linguist, a web based language learning system.

 Juergen Engelbrecht
(Brazil) – former President of Massey-Fergusson, founder and twice President of CCBA – Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce

 Armando Weil
January 1965 first employee and started Cargill inc operations in Brasil, and was involved in hybrid seed ,animal feed, grain origination, ports, orange juice, cocoa, coffee, director of Cargill Agricola in Brasil helped in studies to set up Cargill operations/divisions in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenia, Thailand, Australia, Ivory Coast, Peru, Paraguay, Colombia, and Venezuela. Cargill Country Manager Mexico. Retired from Cargill in 2001"

 Dr. Eric Kirschner, MD
Dr. Kirschner is the VP & COO of Icelltherapeutics and has more than 20 years experience in health care and corporate management. As a cardiac surgeon and researcher he has extensive knowledge in bridging academic research with general practice. For the last ten years, Dr. Kirschner has focused his efforts in establishing a number of Life Science start-up companies. He has served as Chief Operating Officer, ProBed Medical Technologies and Clinical Affairs of MIV Therapeutics.

 Robert Fairweather
Bob retired but remains active in the community. He has served as the President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan (1987-89), as the Chair of the Vancouver Board of Trade (1997-98), and as the President of The Canada-Japan Society of British Columbia (1995-97). From June to September of 2001, he was Interim Chairman of BC Hydro Corporation. He was a member of the Advisory Board of Aon Reed Stenhouse and, until recently, a Director of Powerex, (a subsidiary of BC Hydro). He currently sits on the Boards of Computershare Trust Company of Canada and UBS Bank (Canada). He is Chair of the Canuck Place Foundation, a director of the Vancouver Foundation, and the President of the Canada Korea Business Association.

 Mark Cogan
Mark Cogan recently retired from the BC Government's Business Immigration Office, where he worked for 17 years looking after business immigrants and corporate investment from all parts of the world. He had direct responsibility in the design and implementation of specific immigration programs for business people. He now continues working as an independent certified immigration consultant. He is originally from Chile, where he got an industrial engineering degree. In Vancouver, he later got a MBA degree. Before joining the government, he worked for major international corporations and later operated his own import-export company. He speaks several languages.

 Primo Cajiao
Primo Cajiao, P. Eng is currently Principal of Buildings and Infrastructure at Sandwell Engineering Inc. As civil engineer and seismic and structural specialist he has been the engineer of record of numerous projects worldwide including seismic retrofit, buildings, bridges, and ports and marine. In addition, he is regular lecturer in the seismic strengthening of existing structures for the certificate program in structural engineering of University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Structural Engineers Group Society

 Salvador Miranda - Secretary
Salvador Miranda is the President of InterAmerica Consulting & Development Inc., a company aimed at facilitating business ventures between Canada and the Spanish-speaking world. Salvador is a Civil Engineer with a Master's degree in Project Management from MIT. Born and raised in Mexico, where he maintains contact with high-level business and government leaders, he arrived in Canada over 15 years ago and has been active in several sectors, particularly in systems development, mining and venture capital. He developed considerable experience in the administration of junior public companies in Canada, where he serves as Director, Officer or consultant to these types of companies. Salvador has been a member of the CCA for over five years, and during 2001 he was the President of the Mexican Business Association of Canada, an affiliate organization of the CCA specializing in business relationships with Mexico.

 Stephen Nairne
Stephen Nairne was Deputy Director at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada's Pacific Regional Office. Stephen Nairne is currently Managing Director of Lundin for Africa, a private philanthropic foundation dedicated to building sustainable communities across Africa. In addition, Mr. Nairne teaches emerging markets analysis at the University of British Columbia.

 Tom Sadler
After attending the University of Western Ontario, Mr. Sadler assumed roles ranging from consultant, member of advisory boards, and operational executive positions. Over the past 20 years his company has been very successful in assisting businesses by raising millions of dollars in government export grants, loans and venture capital for his clients. Mr. Sadler develops joint ventures and partnerships between both national and international companies. While he has dealt within numerous business and technology sectors, he has a special interest with renewable technologies. He has developed key relationships with private and public entities throughout the Canadian, Caribbean, Central and South American markets and operates a wholly owned subsidiary corporation in Guadalajara, Mexico.