Coen Vrolijk, general manager at AJC International Inc., and Chris Hopkins, director of U.S. corporate and cash management at Western Union Business Solutions, have been elected as president and vice president of the Netherlands American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeastern U.S.
Mr. Vrolijk told Global Atlanta that the chamber would build on the contributions made by the outgoing president and vice president, Jan Willem A Smeulers and Pieter van der Toorn.
“We want to hold onto what we have and build from there,” he said, adding that the chamber would continue to provide “quality events and networking opportunities.”
He also said that he would increase the chamber’s collaborations with other bi-national chambers and improve its efforts to communicate with a larger audience.
The chamber promotes itself as the largest Dutch networking organization in the Southeast, providing relationships with Dutch and American companies.
The upcoming economic mission to Atlanta Oct. 5-7 to be headed by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Flemish Minister-President Geert Bourgeois is to provide a special opportunity to reach the chamber’s goals of attracting new members and collaborating with other organizations.
Dutch and Flemish officials have been promoting Georgia as “one of the fastest-growing states in America” as the U.S.’s “economic and demographic center of gravity is increasingly shifting to the Southeast.”
They are looking to develop ties here with logistics, information technology and cybersecurity firms.
Flanders has an investment and trade office in Atlanta at the Consulate General of Belgium. The Netherlands has an honorary consul here and the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency maintains an Atlanta office.
The two governments carried out a joint mission to Houston, Texas, in 2013, They also are collaborating on a trade mission to Ghana and Senegal in June.
Mr. Vrolijk is a native of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He joined AJC International, the Atlanta-based global marketer of frozen proteins in Maastricht and moved to Atlanta in 1999 where he has served in commercial leadership positions in sales and purchasing for AJC’s business in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and North America.
Mr. Hopkins helps companies of all sizes develop their foreign exchange strategy, automate and improve their international payments recesses and implement cash management best practices.
To learn more about the chamber, click here, or call Annemarie MacFarland, executive director, at 404-913-3115.
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