WEBINAR – Expanding Operations into New Territories: Has the Recipe for Success Changed in a Post-Covid World?

Brought to you by EACC Florida

Expanding operations into new territories around the world has traditionally offered important commercial opportunities for both for multinational corporations and SMEs. Whereas the trend toward globalization was well underway, the COVID-19 pandemic marked an abrupt halt, leading to a global recession, a severe disruption of global trade and a sharp decrease in foreign direct investments.

Some countries are still managing the crisis. Others are slowly emerging from it with governments mostly focusing on supporting their domestic economies. Companies around the world however are looking at what commercial opportunities are available to them in other territories and considering how the sanitary crisis and its consequences is impacting plans to expand.

Looking at Europe and the United States, with a focus on financial transactions, accounting, taxation and human resources, the panel will discuss the push towards more responsible governance, how the tendency toward international alignment and cooperation between jurisdictions is being challenged by an increase in local, sometimes idiosyncratic, administrative and regulatory complexities and why these trends provide both challenges and opportunities for businesses considering expanding operations to other territories.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

Trends toward more responsible Governance. When planning to expand, companies need to consider the following:

• A shift away from traditional offshoring impacting the choice of new locations;
• Increased protection of employees as businesses are encouraged to be responsible employers;
• An increase in mandated use of third parties;
• Compliance requirements as part of market entry strategy with stricter penalties for non-compliance being implemented especially in more complex jurisdictions;
• Personal consequences for non-compliance on directors.

Trends in international vs. local regulatory and administrative complexity. Issues include:

• Meeting global obligations with the trend toward standardization via regulations such as CRS, UBO and FATCA;
• Managing international reporting requirements vs. local ones such as the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS);
• Navigating the complexities of local/regional jurisdictions opening up to international business while simultaneously enacting rules potentially impacting investments such as the European Commission’s Proposal for Regulating Foreign Subsidies Control;
• Understanding the domination of local legislation in some business areas such as accounting and incorporations;
• Managing the international and local complexities of assembling a workforce.

SPEAKERS

• Juan Botin, Project Director – Grupo Santander (Madrid)
• Jan Willem van Drimmelen, Chief Commercial Officer & Head of North America – TMF Group (Amsterdam)
• Edoardo Gambaro, Partner – Greenberg Traurig (Milano)
• Tyler Lavin, VP, Development and Investment – North America at citizenM hotels (New York)
• Mike Morroni, Head of Global Client Directors and North America Head of Business Development – TMF Group (Miami) [Moderator]

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Juan Botín

Juan´s whole career has been linked to the International sphere. His more than 30 years spent with Grupo Santander across several Divisions and various geographies of the Bank have afforded him a unique set of experiences and skills on International Business and Trade Finance (SME, Large Corporate and Financial Institutions). Born in Seville, Juan has lived in London and Milan for 15 years. He is married with two children and has Spanish and British citizenship. Academically, he holds a degree in Private Law from the University of Seville and a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from IESE Business School. In addition to his executive role at Grupo Santander as Project Director, Juan is Vice President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK coordinating relations and networking with the Chambers of Commerce where Santander maintains active relationships.

Jan Willem van Drimmelen

Jan Willem has 20 years of experience in senior commercial- and leadership roles in professional services businesses. Before joining TMF Group, Jan Willem was a co-founder at Create Capital, a private equity firm in the Netherlands. Prior to that, Jan Willem was responsible for Intertrust’s global corporate client division for two years, after spending nearly five years in his role as Global Head of Sales during a period of unprecedented growth for the Intertrust Group. Prior to that, Jan Willem was Managing Director of Intertrust North America based in New York for six years. Before joining Intertrust in 2007, he worked at merchant bank Kempen & Co, as a tax attorney with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and as an intern at Loyens & Loeff and ABN AMRO Trust Company. Jan Willem has lived and worked in Amsterdam, London, New York and Curaçao. Jan Willem graduated from Leiden University in 2003 where he obtained a Master’s degree in International Taxation. He is currently based in Amsterdam.

Edoardo Gambaro

Edoardo is a Partner at Greenberg Traurig in Milano, Italy. He focuses his practice on Italian and European antitrust law. He represents Italian and foreign companies in proceedings before the European Commission in the application of Articles 101, 102, and 108 of the TFEU (cartel, abuse of dominant position and state aid matters). He also advises on EU procedural law, assisting companies in appellate proceedings before the EU General Court and the EU Court of Justice. He represents companies before the Italian Antitrust Authority and on appeal before the Italian administrative Courts. Edoardo is experienced in the field of merger control, both at Italian and EU levels, and has advised various U.S. and European corporations on merger control filings. He has also dealt with other aspects of EU law, such as telecommunications law, pharmaceuticals law, freedom of establishment, and the free movement of services and capital, representing several companies before the Court of Justice in preliminary references submitted by Italian courts.

Tyler Lavin

Tyler has 17 years of experience working in various aspects of hospitality and real estate including five years at Dutch hotel start-up citizenM.  Prior to citizenM he spent roughly four years working in the Real Estate Advisory Group at PwC in Philadelphia and three years working in Development at Denihan Hospitality in New York.  Most recent work includes expansion of citizenM to key markets in North America including New York, Boston, Washington DC, Austin and Miami.

Mike Morroni

Mike is the Global Clients Leader and North America Head of Business Development at TMF Group in Miami.  Mike has been with TMF for 7 years living in a variety of locations including Miami, Hong Kong and Switzerland.  Prior to this Mike had 15+ years’ experience working in London and New York within services companies, including Control Risks Group, Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Cantor Fitzgerald. Mike has an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona. He enjoys spending time with his family, travelling and has visited over 100 countries.

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