MEET VTM BUSINESS LEADERS
Thomas O'Gara
Chairman and CEO
The O'Gara Companies,
O' Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Company,
Corporate Chairman,
The Virtual Trade Mission Foundation
As a small businessman with a global company, I know how important it
is to have workers who both understand and strive to be the best in world
markets. I also know that I cannot just hope that happens. I need to make
sure every employee and every future employee -- the students in the schools
in my company's home towns -- are ready for the increasingly complex and
interconnected New Global Economy.
In the past five years, we've seen our sales grow dramatically and much
of that growth has come from the Big Emerging Markets. We have customers
and sales in countries that ten years ago most of my salespeople never
traveled to. What's more, much of our future growth will be linked to
E-Commerce and related security concerns. When you add the need to learn
about new markets to the need to learn about new technologies, it easy
to see why Lifelong Learning in a Global Classroom is one of the most
important human resource needs for every business.
I am proud that my companies and the Thomas and Victoria O'Gara Family
Foundation are major sponsors of the VTM Foundation. You should be too!
Please contact me at the National VTM Office in Washington, DC and I will
help you join us in a way that benefits your workplace, community and
the world.
Wendy Pye
President and Founder,
Wendy Pye Group, New Zealand
My company has a simple motto -- To Teach the World
to Read. We do this successfully in many ways through books, Internet,
television, video and CD-ROM.
We work worldwide with governments and major corporations and have literacy
and teacher training programs in China, Korea, South Africa, Thailand,
Taiwan, Europe, Eastern Europe and South America.
As a woman entrepreneur and the leader of a fast growing, worldwide small
business, I know that next to early learning programs and literacy, one
of the greatest education needs in the world is Global Education Programs
for Workers in Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SME). Developing the
human capital in our economies is the key to a prosperous and civil society.
As the Chair of the SME Education Forum for APEC 1999,
I helped develop and lead the VTM's "@APEC" program at the Leaders
Meeting and CEO Summit. Over 75 students, educators, workers and SME owners
from more than 15 APEC nations interacted with the Heads of State, Trade
Ministers and CEOs who attended the APEC forum in Auckland. The focus
was the future as the next generation of APEC citizens met with today's
Pacific Rim economic leaders.
Every workplace can be as rich in worldwide learning and vocational skill
development as the @APEC program was in Auckland. All its takes is a commitment
to excellence and competitiveness and a connection to a solid network
of global knowledge resources. The VTM can help you make it happen!
You can learn more about the Wendy Pye Group and its world leading educational
and literacy programs by sending an email
to admin@sunshine.co.nz
“ IF YOU'RE NOT EVERYWHERE, YOU'RE NOWHERE.”
—Go Global, Business 2.0, May 2000
