Woodruff Arts Center Hosts World Chamber Meeting

In addition to Mr. Uribe and Mr. Reed, the following also were recognized: Lutz Goergens, dean of the Consular Corps; Mark Becker, president, Georgia State University; John Hartman, president, Carter Center; Joe Bankoff, president, Woodruff Arts Center; Linda Blechinger, mayor of Auburn, Ga.; Christopher Smith, honorary consul of Denmark and Phil Bolton, publisher, GlobalAtlanta.

Solange Warner, founder of the chamber, and Stenley Romanstein, president, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, also addressed the meeting and invited the guests to attend the evening's concert.

To learn more about the World Chamber of Commerce, go here. For GlobalAtlanta's coverage when Mr. Uribe attended the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta in 2008, go here.

Atlanta’s World Chamber of Commerce announced its new board members and honored more than a dozen individuals for their contributions to the city’s emergence as an international commercial and cultural center at an evening reception Feb. 2 held at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown.

Andrew Young, the former diplomat, politician and civil rights leader who serves as the chamber’s honorary chairman, provided an historical perspective to the event by recalling the tragic loss of lives of Atlanta’s art patrons and artists in the June 1962 airplane crash on their return from a cultural tour of Europe.

While what he termed “the best and brightest and most generous” of the city’s patrons died, their legacy lived on through the fundraising campaign resulting in the center’s development and the city’s greater awareness of its role as a global center.

The chamber’s new board members include representatives from the city’s consular corps, members of the state Senate, bi-national chambers as well as Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE; Louis Miller, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and William Pate, president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Charles Shapiro, a native of Atlanta and former U.S. diplomat who heads the San Diego, Calif.-based Institute of the Americas, is to co-chair the chamber with Annabelle Malins, the British consul general here.

As an example of how such an organization can play an important role in nurturing relationships around the world, Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe attended as a special guest. Before the evening was over, he accepted to join Mr. Young as an honorary chairman of the chamber.

In introducing Mr. Uribe, who has visited Atlanta in the past to meet with the local Colombian community, Mr. Shapiro was effusive in his praise, saying that Mr. Uribe had been instrumental in restoring “Colombians’ faith in themselves.”

During his two-term presidency with substantial U.S. financial and military backing, Mr. Uribe successfully countered the terrorism and narcotics trade and contained paramilitary and guerrilla forces.

After tracing Mr. Uribe’s political career from mayor of Medellin and governor of the department of Antiquia, Mr. Shapiro compared him to George Washington for deciding despite his extensive popularity throughout the country to restrain from seeking a third consecutive term.

Both Mr. Uribe and Mr. Shapiro encouraged Americans to take advantage of the new free trade agreement passed between their two countries after many years of delays and negotiations.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed also was honored with an International Hero Award. While the 300 or so invitees waited for his arrival, Mr. Young traced the accomplishments of the city’s mayors since William Hartsfield’s second term beginning in 1942 through Shirley Franklin’s term ending in 2010.

Once he arrived, Mr. Reed recommitted himself to Atlanta’s development as an international center and underscored the importance that the new international at Hartsfield-Jackson would play in promoting business ties across the world.

Additionally, former chamber president George Novak, the honorary consul general of the Czech Republic, and Craig Lesser, the former chairman, were honored for their contributions to the chamber.

New board members also include Roma Kicius, consul of Lithuania; Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney; Linda Blechinger, mayor of Auburn, Ga.; state Sen. Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain; state Sen. John Albers of Roswell; state Sen. Curt Thompson of Tucker;

Lucia Jennings, founder, Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast; Josh Belinfante former state of Georgia Counsel; Caroline Taylor, immigration attorney and Axel Leblois, United Nations Fellow.