Ambassador Ernest Ndabashinze of Burundi, (third from the left) and
his delegation visited Richardson City Hall to meet with Mayor Laura Maczka
(second from left), RISD Superintendent Kay Waggoner (center) and Methodist
Richardson Hospital President Ken Hutchenrider (third from the right) on October
17. Ben Kazora (far right), President of the East Africa Diaspora Business
Council DFW arranged the meeting.
the Mayor’s Office of International Business, met with several foreign delegations visiting from
around the globe, visited the UK to conduct economic development business, and met
with foreign-based companies visiting Richardson including Cash Management and
VMN Plus Argentina.
During the 2014 calendar year, 42 delegations visited our area and 292
visitors heard the benefits of establishing a business in Texas and in
Richardson. Visitors included the U.S. State Department delegation, Shanghai
Jio Tong University, the East Africa delegation, the Chinese delegation,
Connect Vest, and the National U.S. Arab Chamber of Commerce Houston.
From Oct. 6 to Oct. 18, Skelton visited the United Kingdom. A local
economic development consultant arranged meetings from ten UK firms that are
planning on expansion of their business to the U.S. market within the next
12-24 months. While there Skelton spoke to 15 members of TECHUK, attend the IP
EXPO conference and met with over 20 firms exhibiting at the conference to
discuss their possible plans for expansion develop future leads for attracting
them to Richardson. Skelton was invited to sit at the head table of the
President at the annual meeting of the UK Science Park Association dinner, and
met with several officials from SelectUSA at the U.S. Embassy in London.
The Mayors Office of International Business hosted several events over
the last few months. On September 10, 2014, a reception was held at the
Eisemann Center in Richardson to host the international chambers of commerce in
DFW and select business organizations representing foreign regions or countries
in the greater Dallas area. As a result of the reception on September 10, two
separate task force meetings were held to get input from all reception
attendees wanting to participate. The goal of the Task Force meeting was to
solicit their advice on the best ways to cooperate between all the
organizations. Volunteers of the Richardson International Concierge
Program arranged a happy hour on November 4 at the Amigos Restaurant in
Richardson. About 20 members of the program stopped by during the event to meet
and connect with other members.