Macon Symposium Focuses on Pluses of International Engagement for Georgia

Wesleyan College President Meaghan Blight offered opening remarks.

At a time of growing upheaval in international relations, a symposium in Macon earlier this month yet again focused on the opportunities rather than the threats of cross-border connections.

The sixth annual Global Trade and Investment Symposium, sponsored by Danish honorary consul and local attorney Christopher N. Smith, was held Feb. 6 at Wesleyan College, the first institution in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.

Against a backdrop of geopolitical angst, the event provided a constructive lens on international ties from a Georgia point of view — and a sense of what could be lost, both from an economic and cultural standpoint, if international cooperation stalls.

“When I think about global trade, it’s not just an act of commerce. It’s about fostering leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and friendship, all core values that are deeply embedded here at Wesleyan,” President Meaghan Blight, a native of Canada, said in opening remarks to some 100 attendees at the college’s Pierce Chapel.

About 100 people attended the event, which included the symposium followed by a reception in the Burden Parlor.

France in Focus

Co-organized by Global Atlanta, the event this year featured France, which has spent the last few years finding a dwindling number of World War II veterans from around the Southeast to award the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest decoration.

Delta Air Lines Inc. has aided in the process by flying veterans to Normandy for each of the last three anniversaries of D-Day on June 6. Each time, they’ve received a hero’s welcome, said Virginie Durr, enterprise sales manager at Delta, who hails from the northern French region and serves as a foreign trade adviser for the French government.

She described how the “common purpose” enabled the airline to bring a full crew to Normandy’s Deauville Airport, which wasn’t initially equipped to handle jets like Delta’s Boeing 767.

Macon Bibb-County Industrial Authority’s Stephen Adams discussed how the authority’s existing industry team works to ensure longtime investors like YKK are appreciated and integrated into the community.

“They were stunned,” she said of the Delta’s plan. “You have to picture this terminal that was built in 1970, with just one runway. But the difference was what they said in that meeting when we arrived: You are bringing our heroes home. This is your city, and this is your airport.”

With Ms. Durr on the panel, the Macon event served as a homecoming and de facto birthday party for Delta, whose precursor company incorporated as a crop dusting service at downtown Macon’s Bibb Building 100 years ago. (At a post-event reception, a 100th birthday cake for Delta was served to guests.)

Collett Everman Woolman, Delta’s first CEO, had been inspired by France, which he visited as a college student to attend the first global aviation conclave in the city of Rheims in 1909. The airline moved from Macon to Monroe, La., where it later adopted the Delta moniker after Mr. Woolman led a group of investors in acquiring the assets of Huff Daland Dusters.

A special D-Day commemoration took place in Normandy in 2024, as many veterans that had yet to be recognized were able to receive their Legion of Honor designation directly from French President Emmanuel Macron in an 80th-anniversary ceremony attended by many heads of state.

Virginie Durr helped cut Delta’s 100th birthday cake. A crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Delta during a reception after the symposium.

Hilbert Margol, a centenarian from Dunwoody, was among them, said French Consul General Anne-Laure Desjonquères, who urged the crowd to share the contacts of any World War II veterans that had not been recognized.

Such acts of friendship aren’t just empty gestures, she noted, but are important ways to show the vitality of America’s oldest alliance.

“My job is to foster relationships, and diplomats may do an amazing job, but a strong relationship really has to be built at every level,” she said.

The consul general had recently traveled to Middle Georgia for another acknowledgment of France’s historical ties with the state. She presided over the unveiling of signs honoring the French provenance behind the names of Abbeville and Rochelle in Wilcox County.

It was yet another way that being a diplomat provides an “amazing day-to-day life” for the curious person, she said.

“I have to confess that I’ve wanted to become a diplomat since I was, I think, 5 years old,” she told a student in the audience. “I’ve always been attracted to traveling, discovering new countries, new cultures. I like to speak foreign languages, even if it’s with a strong French accent, and I think I’m able to develop an interest in about any issue.”

Importance of International Investment for Local Communities

Raymond Shelton of YKK AP describes the power of cultural connections.

International investment is another method of tying countries together, she added, noting that more than 200 French companies operate in Georgia alone, and French trade and investment ties underpin 27,000 jobs in the state. The U.S. meanwhile, is the top investor in France, which has been the No. 1 foreign investment destination in Europe.

Stephen Adams, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, said the community has benefited from not only the jobs created by foreign companies, but also their knowhow and corporate citizenship.

“The taxable assets that go back to providing a revenue stream to our education system — those are the easy things to point to,” Mr. Adams said. “But it’s the culture that comes with those companies that make us better as a community, and YKK is a perfect example of that.”

He was referring to the Japanese company that has spent 50 years in Macon as of 2024.

Known as a zipper company that built a huge complex in Macon in the 1970s, YKK also has an architectural products arm, YKK AP, which has had a factory in Dublin, Ga., since 1992 and recently opened a greenfield plant in Macon to make residential windows.

Raymond Shelton, vice president and chief sustainability and communications officer for YKK AP America Inc., said the company operates on founder Tadao Yoshida’s philosophy, the Cycle of Goodness, which states that “No one prospers without rendering benefit to others.”

“That’s really how we take our responsibility here in Georgia, and how we take our responsibility anywhere that we’re doing business,” Mr. Shelton said.

YKK underwrites exchanges of students and medical personnel through the sister-city relationships between its hometown of Kurobe, Japan, and Macon. It also supports ties between Dublin and Osaki city in northeastern Japan’s Miyagi prefecture. YKK is also close to The Carter Center, building on the friendship between the late former president and Mr. Yoshida.

For Mr. Shelton, cultural awareness has been a key part of a career that has included stints in Japan working for Coca-Coca Co. It all started for him during a study program that took him to Montpellier, France, and Dakar, Senegal, as a student.

“You get this first taste, or this first nugget, and you never know where it’s going to lead you,” Mr. Shelton said.

Uncertainty in Global Trade

The world needs people who both understand other cultures and have the motivation to drive positive collaboration, Ms. Desjonquères said.

I believe that we are in a difficult moment of our history. The world is has become very dangerous and very unstable. We need people who believe in humanity and in global relationships, so I very much encourage you to take a career where you can help people living together and in peace and understanding each other,” she said.

French Consul General Anne-Laure Desjonqueres talks about the importance of free markets, multilateralism and the rules-based order.

Asked about tariff threats, she added that the French position on trade is one of continued cooperation and openness.

“We believe in free markets. We believe in multilateralism. We believe in playing by the rules, so we very much hope that our main partners will continue sharing the same beliefs.”

YKK AP, meanwhile, is innovating to make sure its business is sustainable from both an environmental and business standpoint, blending the long-term perspective common to Japanese companies with short-term adaptability.

Aluminum, a main input for its skyscraper building facades, was slapped with a 25 percent U.S. tariff just a few days after the event was held.

“We’ve had to keep ourselves fresh. It’s not just about homegrown and home-built. We’ve also looked at acquiring other businesses, expanding into other markets,” Mr. Shelton said, noting that YKK AP bought a Canadian factory in 2019.

From Delta’s perspective, “we owe it to future generations” to continue connecting the world, Ms. Durr said, noting that partnerships with Air France, Korean Air and other joint-venture partners enable Delta to serve travelers with convenience and consideration the world over.

“We have many strategic partnerships because we want to be able to take people from Georgia everywhere they want to fly.”

The main panel was followed by a reception at the college’s Burden Parlor attended by diplomats from 10 countries, many based in Atlanta who had traveled to Macon for the occasion.