We're pleased to present a distinguished trio of speakers on trade between Canada and Arizona at the next Arizona International Growth Group (AZIGG) event. For more information on the March 1st morning event, please visit www.azigg.com.
Rick Stephenson
Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner of Consulate of Canada
Rick Stephenson was appointed on June 1, 2008 as the Consul & Senior Trade Commissioner at the Canadian Consulate in Phoenix, Arizona.
Prior to this assignment, Rick has served as Trade Commissioner in Kingston, Jamaica, Dallas, Texas, Oslo, Norway, Los Angeles, California and Tucson, Arizona.
Rick's Canadian home is Vancouver where he holds a mortgage brokers’ license and served on the Curriculum Advisory Board of the British Columbia Institute of Technology where he was also a lecturer in international business development.
Rick has also held positions with the Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian International Development Agency and the Treasury Board of Canada.
Rick has extensive experience in investment and export promotion through his experience abroad as well as through previous positions held at the International Trade Center in Vancouver.
Born in Montreal, Canada, Rick Stephenson graduated with degrees in Business Administration (with Honors) in Marketing and Finance from Concordia University. He is married with 3 adult sons all living in Vancouver, Canada.
Glenn Williamson
CEO of NestVentures, & Founder/CEO of The Canada Arizona Business Council
Glenn Williamson is founder and CEO of The Canada Arizona Business Council, a private sector group sanctioned by the Canadian Government and the State of Arizona to work on increasing bilateral trade between Canada and Arizona. He is also Chairman of the Board of Kinetx, a 100-person aerospace firm, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Big Sky Group, an international travel industry company with over 150 associates in 38 countries around the world that handles the international operations of Helms Briscoe, the words largest conference resource company.
Since 2000 Mr. Williamson has been CEO of Nest Ventures L.L.C., a private equity firm with offices in Montreal Canada and Phoenix Arizona. He has also held series 7 and 63 NASD securities licenses and acted in the capacity of an international Investment Banker in NYC and LA. He is also an active registered member of the National association of Corporate Directors, trained in U.S. and Canadian Corporate Governance.
Mr. Williamson has more than 28 years of entrepreneurial executive level experience, primarily in the financial and operation aspects of companies. During the last four years, he has been involved in dozens of business engagements ranging from a world-class fractional yacht ownership program in the Cayman Islands to a world-class film animation production company based in Montreal, Quebec Canada.
Mr. Williamson has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Inexus Biotechnology, a public life sciences company and was President and on the Board of Directors of Sweet Success, a publicly traded consumer beverage company.
Mr. Williamson’s extraordinary career can be further tracked here. You will be amazed: http://www.nestventures.com/index.asp?from=glenn_williamson
Mr. Williamson has received six coveted gold and silver National Telly awards for executive production of non-broadcast video and film productions, and is an avid skier, scuba diver and video gamer. He also was an Honorary Commander at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona home to the 56th Fighter Wing of the U.S. Air Force, which is comprised of some 220 F-16 fighter aircraft.
Mr. Williamson, was born in Montreal and is fluent it French, a graduate of Rothsey Collegiate Military Academy in New Brunswick, Canada, he currently resides in Phoenix with his wife and three children.
Chantal Ramsay
Consul at the Ontario Int’l Marketing Centre in the Canadian Consulate General
Chantal Ramsay is the Consul (Economic Affairs - Ontario) at the Ontario International Marketing Centre (OIMC) in the Canadian Consulate General in Los Angeles. The International Marketing Centre’s territory includes California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii. The role of the OIMC is to work with Ontario based companies wishing to do business in the territory, to attract investment from US and multinational companies into Ontario and to raise awareness of the Province in the region.
Prior to this posting, Ms Ramsay was a Senior Manager with the Investment Branch of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ontario in Toronto, Ontario.
Ms Ramsay is a graduate of the Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario - Honours Bachelor of Science in Language with a minor in Economics. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian.
Thank you! Doug Bruhnke - AZIGG
