Ángel Cabrera: Global Leaders Can Be Made

From the port of Colón, through the magic Gatún Lake and the Miraflores locks, there’s probably no better place in the world to see global trade in action than the Panama Canal.  An amazing piece of engineering that, 100 years later, keeps doing its job connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific.  And a beautiful natural environment that manages to co-exist with the flow of tankers across the isthmus.
I had the pleasure of touring the Canal for the first time (including a visit to the howler monkeys of Barro Colorado island, which is used as a research lab by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) with alum and trustee Merle Hinrichs ‘65, himself an enabler of global trade. Born and raised in Nebraska, Merle settled in Asia  and built a now publicly traded company, Global Sources (NASDAQ: GSOL), that plays a critical role connecting clients and suppliers between Asia and the rest of the world.
It was hard not to draw some parallelisms between Thunderbird and Panama.  Panama is a small nation that plays a disproportionate role in enabling world trade.  Thunderbird, founded “The American Institute of Foreign Trade,” is a small school that plays a disproportionate role in educating the leaders who drive world trade.  It’s no surprise that President Martinelli (guess who was not wearing a tie!) so emphatically believes that Panama would be the natural home in Latin America for Thunderbird. 
“Panama is open for business”.  That’s how Ricardo Martinelli describes his agenda since he beat the two dominant political parties by a landslide and won the Presidency last year.  As the business man he is, he understands how crucial it is for the future of the Panamanian economy that there be clean, consistent, transparent and enforced rules that apply to all.  He proudly displays in his office his first pay check (a whooping $1.00) and does not waver calling people to task, whether former public servants or fellow business men. If he succeeds he may well provide an example for other Central and South American nations to follow.
Panama is now working on a $5.25 billion expansion of the Canal that will triple container volume and double tonnage capacity throughput by making room for super tankers (all but the world’s eight vessels apparently will be able to cross).  The new locks will use a set of three back up water tanks that will save 60% of the fresh water that would be utilized with today’s system. (It’s quite fitting that the engineering company that has helped Panama design the new solution, CH2M HILL, is led by a Thunderbird alum, Lee McIntire).

Posted: 01|17|10 at 9:16 am.
Filed under: Global Entrepreneurship.
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