National minority business council celebrates 25th anniversary with announcement of new London office for increasing activity in international trade

Hispanic Times Magazine, Dec, 1997

John F. Robinson, President and CEO of the National Minority Business Council (NMBC), recently announced the mid-December opening of the Council's European headquarters in London.

Robinson told guests attending the NMBC's 25th anniversary reception at Philip Morris Companies in New York that the NMBC's new office is essential to his organization's increasing activity in assisting Council members in international trade.

Founded a quarter century ago by African Americans and Hispanics as a business development advocate in the New York metropolitan area, the NMBC now includes a broader ethnic base, as well as women-owned businesses.

Reports from international traders convinced Council members that --with study and caution -- global marketing could benefit small entrepreneurs. During the last decade, the Council sponsored trade missions to the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and South Africa, Robinson estimates than NMBC members have contracts in the global market valued at more than $50 million.

The NMBCs chairman, Ernest P. González, who is also President and CEO of Captree Chemical Corp., reports that five of the 60 business organizations that traveled with the Council to Puerto Rico two months ago returned with signed contracts worth an average of $10 million.

Dede Bartlett, Vice President, Corporate Affairs Programs, Philip Morris Companies Inc., added that Philip Morris had spent more than $4 billion with minority vendors since 1963, when the company first invested in minority-owned banks. "We believe that doing business with firms owned by people of color and by women is good business for us, good business for you, and good business for all the communities we live and work in. Last year, we spent $743 million with minority vendors. This is almost a $300 million increase from what we spent in 1995," she said.

NMBC members will attend opening ceremonies at the London office. Council officials also plan to host discussions, fora and sessions aimed at bringing buyers and sellers together.

The NMBC's efforts to keep its members abreast of global marketing opportunities have led to the development of the Export Management Training Program, a five-week course for entrepreneurs, which includes up-to-date information and hands-on training to manage worldwide export operations, electronic communications and international contracts.