Global Chamber Austin Advisory Board

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Global Chamber® Austin

The Board of Advisors & International Trade Leaders

Edwin Pope, Board Chair, President at DigitalGenetix

Ed Pope is Founder and President of DigitalGenetix LLC and DGNX Media. He has built teams across the globe to help organizations find innovative solutions to everyday business technology challenges. Ed is actively engaged with clients and other stakeholders to leverage his broad experience that ranges from his military service with the U.S. Army to 30 years of executive leadership at various companies. In each of his roles, Ed delivered exceptional results and powerful customer experiences.

He is an advocate for inclusive culture, need-based technological change, and corporate social responsibility. Prior to founding DigitalGenetix, Ed worked at UPS as a Business Development leader driving domestic and international sales for customers based in Texas and Oklahoma.

He currently serves on the board of directors of Social Venture Partners San Antonio and Board Chair for the Ascend Foundation. Ed has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Southwest Christian University. During his time off, you can find him fishing, hiking, and traveling with his family around the world.

Andrew Rauch, Past Board Chair, VP of Growth at Improving

Andrew Rauch is the past Board Chair for Global Chamber® Austin for 2022-2023. As a business member, we love Andrew’s passion for business and entrepreneurship. He is a first-generation American coming to the US from Austria at the age of 4, landed in the Bronx, NY and later made Texas his home. Andrew is the Vice President of Growth, Nearshore Enterprise for Improving company, a B2B digital services firm focused on helping well-funded start-ups to enterprise brands. He transforms their business by leveraging digital innovation.

Andrew’s life's mission is to help individuals and organizations "grow to give". We are fortunate to have a chair with more than 25 years of experience working with, leading, and serving with Board of Directors, CEOs, executives, and business owners. He has guided businesses on matters of strategy, sales and marketing, technology, capital development, and venture and philanthropy.

As a plus to Global Chamber® Austin, Andrew has jointly or independently served and advised more than 200 for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.

Debbie Howard, Global Advisor

Chairman at The Carter Group-JMRN, Founder of Aging Matters International (AMI), and Co-founder of Corporate Caregiver Camps. Most of us know Debbie for her expertise in the Japanese market. But her other passion is working as an advocate for family caregivers. Inspired by her own experience as live-in caregiver for her Mom during her dying days, Debbie put her research skills to work and wrote a book (The Caregiving Journey: Information. Guidance. Inspiration.) to help other caregivers and caregivers-to-be. Nowadays, she speaks and blogs regularly on this topic, and helps companies deliver programs to support their employees who struggle to balance caregiving responsibilities at home with their work. Her second book will be published in January 2022 (The Caregiving Crisis: What It Costs Your Company and How to Fix It).

Kathy Burrell, Advisor, Senior Executive at Bank of America

Kathy Burrell is a proven Senior Executive with 20 plus years of success across sales management, business integration, leadership, business development and credit. Leveraging extensive experience in financial management which includes balance sheet recapitalization, asset conversion cycle and helping companies maximize their strategic growth plans.

Kathy leads a team of banking specialists who work to understand a client’s business, and then proactively provides strategic guidance and financial solutions to help clients achieve their goals. Kathy started her career in banking with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 1996. Kathy has held various positions at Bank of America including roles as the Vice President of government lending and commercial banking and the Senior Vice President of credit products and small business banking. As Senior Vice President of Commercial Banking, Kathy serves as an advisor to business clients with annual sales over $10MM. She has also served in the past as an adjunct professor in Corporate Finance at Huston Tillotson University – School of Business and Technology. Kathy currently lives in Cedar Park, Texas where she is active with the community and serves as the Board Member of the Ann Richards School Foundation; Past Treasurer and former Board member of PeopleFund; Current Board member of Austin Ed Fund.

Kathy earned both a B.A. in Finance and an M.B.A. in Finance from Clark Atlanta University. Kathy is married to Dennis Burrell and enjoys watching their son Dawson play soccer.

Lauren Mills

Lauren Mills is a dedicated business owner with a strong commitment to education and workplace equity. With a deep understanding of the power of education to drive change and promote equity, Lauren has integrated these values into every aspect of her work. With a background in project management, she has effectively overseen large-scale initiatives and created lasting impact. Her love for strategic partnerships has allowed her to collaborate with like-minded organizations to create powerful solutions that make a difference. Lauren's unwavering commitment to equity and education has earned her a reputation as a trusted leader and advocate, and she continues to inspire others to pursue their dreams and achieve their full potential. Lauren has had a positive impact on the lives of countless individuals, driving change and creating a more equitable future for all.

Mariah Barber, Author & Certified Health Education Specialist

Mariah Barber, MPH, CHES, is an author, certified health education specialist, DEI consultant, and researcher who has been working in the field of public health for over a decade. Barber holds a DEI consultant in diversity equity and inclusion; an MPH in community, social and behavioral health; a B. S. in public health with a concentration in community health; and a B.A. in international studies with a concentration in Latin America. She has dual certifications in cultural competency and global understating as well as immediate language proficiency in Spanish. ‍ Barber‘s work has focused on the intersections between biological and social sciences on a global scale. Her professional experience includes working as a radio personality, spoken word artist, content curator, mentor, moderator, researcher, counselor, facilitator, writer, advocate, organizer, teacher, podcaster, blogger, public speaker, and educator, which all influence the passion that she brings to public health initiatives. Her mission and mantra in life is, "Some people do, some people never do, some people overdo, how do you do?" Mariah’s answer to this guiding question is that she does work to uplift unheard voices.

Valerie Sue Peyton-Hernandez, Membership Committee Global Chamber Austin

She has a passion and experience for import and export trade and she has success in client-centered services. She has a decade of experience working with clients from across the globe including #Canada, #UK, #Australia, #South America, #Southeast Asia, #India and #New Zealand.

Valerie stated that trade is part of the solution to the challenges we face, far more than it is part of the problem. Across every dimension of sustainability — economic development, social inclusion, and environmental conservation — leveraging the full power of trade and trade policy will help us achieve our goals more effectively and efficiently. Valerie history of success in client-centered services is directly related to her ability to maintain business relationships, delegate event coordination, establish media platforms, and foster customer loyalty. She is an expert at managing client satisfaction and working with teams to achieve demanding services and marketing goals on and off premise.

She has trained an international team of sales specialists from Colombia for prospecting, cold calling, closing sales within the US, Canada and UK areas (one becoming the top sales specialist) and traveled to countries mentioned for events and trade shows.

She is a member of the Global Chamber, International Chamber of Commerce, National Hemp Association and the Business Network International. A better answer to the real problems we see lies in better trade — in a better globalization, or, as I term it, a re-globalization — one that brings marginalized people and countries into the economic mainstream, while helping us decouple human well-being from environmental impact. While others take pride in meeting all standards set before them, Valerie-Sue Peyton Hernandez passion is for delivering service that goes beyond organizational expectations, creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

More About Supporting Global Chamber® Austin

Global Chamber® is a growing and collaborating community of CEOs, executives and leaders in 525 metro regions around the world... connecting member businesses to new opportunities and advancing growth and success. It's the only chamber of commerce in the world operating in hundreds of locations that helps exporting, importing and investing members to connect through warm introductions to clients, partners, projects and resources. Global Chamber® is a registered trademark of Global Chamber, LLC.

SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION

The Global Chamber has an exciting opportunity for you to help support the growth of our region in the area of international trade (imports and exports), foreign direct investments, and global cooperation. The huge success of the Board and our business and civic friends is credited in large part to our sponsors, who will lend their names and financial support to our events. We extend our hearty THANK YOU!

We hope you will consider joining our sponsors listed below for annual sponsorship of all of our events. See Link:

Our Global Chamber annual sponsorship levels are:

Visionary Sponsorship - $10,000
Chairman Sponsorship - $5,000
CEO Sponsorship - $2,500
President Sponsorship - $1,250
Think Global, Eat Local Sponsorship - $500

If you are a one-time sponsor for this event, please provide your logo to aus@globalchamber.org and pay your donation at the following link:

Gold Level - Texas International Sponsorship - $750 (Short speaking opportunity + logo on flyer)
Silver Level - Austin International Sponsorship - $500 (Logo on Event page, Flyer)
Bronze Level - Business-Diplomacy Sponsorship - $250 (Logo on Event page, Flyer)

Donation/payment page: https://www.globalchamber.org/forms/payment/. Select Austin as the Metro and use the sponsor amount of choice. We will add your logo to our online promotion once received. We will email you your copy for your records. We ask that your business and/or association market the event on social media or on your website.

As a sponsor, you will receive benefits designed to increase your company's visibility and provide a return on your company's investment, including:

* Exposure to the largest export community in the world

* Name recognition in press releases and media coverage

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact AUS@globalchamber.org. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you!

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION