Market Access International is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Canada Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Canada newsletters.
Former ambassadors on both sides of the U.S-Canada border have joined Atlanta’s Pendleton Group, an Atlanta-based consulting firm with expertise at the intersection of economic development, policy and international affairs.
The names of the new additions will be familiar to Georgians in the international sphere, but their decision to join the firm gives it an increasingly international dimension as it expands its profile while remaining rooted in the state.
Louise Blais joins the firm as a strategic advisor after having recently retired from the Canadian foreign service, Global Affairs Canada. Her most recent full posting was as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, after which she served as the country’s acting consul general in Atlanta for about six months through December of last year. She had returned by choice to to the South, where she’d served three years before heading to the U.N. in 2018.
She will be joined in the Pendleton ranks by Charles Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela who recently retired after seven years as president of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. Before that, the Atlanta native was president of the Institute of the Americas in San Diego after a career in the State Department focused on the America that made him a recognized expert on Western Hemisphere affairs. Mr. Shapiro will serve as a consultant, fulfilling one of the goals he laid out in a farewell call with the council. The other? Extended travel.
Pendleton in a sense was founded at the confluence of local and global investment issues in Georgia. One of its co-founders, Craig Lesser, was influential in helping land Kia Motors in the state, the biggest foreign investment at the time, which has helped solidify its role as a bona fide automotive hub and set the stage for more recent large projects. Under then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, Mr. Lesser also helped founded the SEUS-Canadian Provinces Alliance, which this year will bring its annual conference back to Savannah, the city of its founding — 15 years after the launch.
In a release, Mr. Lesser said the new appointments represent Atlanta’s maturation as a global business hub.
“Both are immensely well-connected and well-versed in public and foreign affairs and bring with them a tremendous capability to see through international projects that are currently underway while initiating new opportunities for continued growth and expansion,” Mr. Lesser said.
Ms. Blais said she joined Pendleton to further in the private sector the work that she was doing to advance Canada’s economic diplomacy initiatives: She’ll be focused on helping U.S. companies investing in Canada and Canadian companies looking to expand in the U.S., particularly in the South.
“I’ll be using my network on both sides of the border to try and continue to grow the untapped potential in the relationship,” Ms. Blais said in a news release. “While it’s a very strong economic relationship, which the data shows, it has a lot of room to grow.”
Ms. Blais and Mr. Shapiro will both bring their knowledge to bear helping companies navigate trade barriers and the complexities of doing business across borders, a process as full of promise as it is fraught with problems.
“Atlanta business is international business,” said Mr. Shapiro, noting that whether they like it or not, companies here in services, technology, manufacturing and beyond are competing on a global playing field.
With an international practice led by Jorge Fernandez, longtime international economic developer in Atlanta, and Guy Tessler, former president of Conexx, Pendleton has has already completed multiple projects with Canada, Ireland, Israel, France and South Korea, weaving many of their global relationships into their work with cities like Savannah and Peachtree Corners, as well as counties like Cobb.
For more information, visit http://www.pendletonatlanta.com.
Disclosure: Pendleton Group is an annual partner and supporter of Global Atlanta, as well as sponsor of the publication’s Economic Development channel.
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.