February/2018
  AlabamaGermany Partnership   
1900 International Park Drive, Suite 105     Birmingham   AL 35243

                   205-943-4772          www.AlabamaGermany.org           E-mail                              
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In This Issue
AGP 20th Anniversary
AGP Business Forum
AGP Young Professionals
German Auto Supplier on Birmingham
BLG Logistics Investing $7.1M
How Germany Wins at Manufacturing
Berlin Wall
 
Dankeschön to our PATRON Members:

 
  
 
 
Mercedes

  
 


 
What to do in Alabama

Birmingham

February 17
Florence

February 24
Orange Beach


Please note that the dates are shared to the best of our knowledge. If you plan to attend any of the events - please make sure to check information directly with the host of the event. Thank you! 

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   AGP Celebrates 20th Anniversary 

Gold 20th Anniversary With Fireworks For Celebration Or Parties

2018 marks AlabamaGermany Partnership's 20th Anniversary. As we celebrate this milestone, we also celebrate Germany being Alabama's No. 1 foreign investor for the past 20 years which has in turn transformed the state's economy and the lives of many residents.   

Please join us for the celebration: 
 
Thursday, March 1, 2018
5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Visitor Center
& Mercedes-Benz Museum
Vance, AL 

This will be AlabamaGermany Partnership's biggest event of the year, celebrating our journey and our organization's supporters. We have a great night prepared with  networking opportunities throughout the night, heavy hors d'oeuvres, open bar and silent auction. Wonderful silent auction items are waiting to be bid on: 
  • Mercedes-Benz Off Road Driving Experience for Six People
  • Hotel Stays
  • Soccer Ball signed by Stuttsgart FC's Team 
  • Wine/Gift Baskets
  • Regions Bike 
And much more....

Special guests includes:

Detlev Ruenger
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany

Rolf Krona
VP Human Resource
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International

Greg Canfield
Secretary of Commerce


Program will also include presenting 2017 new and expanding German companies in Alabama, the Barbara Fischer Education Award and the prestigious Rainer Bauer Award. This is our Annual Dinner in a special format in celebration of our Anniversary. 



Thank you to our generous top sponsor: 



AGP Business Forum - 2018 Outlook 

AGP's Yearly Business Forum: 

Friday, March 2, 2018
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Mercedes-Benz Training Center
Vance

Join us as we explore what the new year will bring as we take a look at the Economic Outlook for 2018 for the U.S., Alabama and Germany.  German subsidiaries in the US are growing and investing heavily despite some skepticism regarding the state of free trade and the availability of a skilled workforce, according to the 2018 German American Business Outlook (GABO) survey conducted by German American Chambers of Commerce (GACCs), the Representative of German Industry & Trade (RGIT), and KPMG but what else does the survey show?

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" into law, marking the most consequential tax reform legislation in the U.S. in three decades. We will look at the impact of the tax reform will aff ect foreign businesses with US subsidiaries and nationals that are temporary working in the U.S.


Presenters: 
Dr. Ursina Krumpholz
Head of the Econmic and Business Section
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany


SVP, Chief Economist
Regions Financial Corporation

President & CEO
GACC South

CPA, Partner-In-Charge
International Tax
Rödl & Partner

Shareholder
Global Business Team
Baker Donelson

Moderator:

Shareholder/Executive Committee
International Practice Group Leader
JamisonMoneyFarmer



AGP Young Professionals 

Join AGP's Young Professionals (age 21 to 39):

Thursday, February 15, 2018

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Carrigan's Public House, Birmingham


We will be joined by engineer turned academician, Dr. Anthony C. Hood, PhD. He is currently an Associate Professor of Management in the Collat School of Business at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Team Science Fellow in the UAB Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Dr. Hood will be talking about design thinking and how you can use it in your everyday personal and work life to solve all kinds of problem quickly and without a lot of cost. As a business professor, he would also like to hear from you on how better to prepare his students for the workplace and as future leaders. Pertaining to such exchange, he will also talk about how to establish a Learning Community within the AGP.

There will be plenty of time to network and enjoy Carrigan's Public House offering. Please register here! 

First round is generously sponsored by: 



A German auto supplier on Birmingham, success in business and America
By Birmingham Business Journal


Although Manfred Heisen heads up an IT firm operating  out of the Innovation Depot, he doesn't consider himself a  techie.

"I'm a car guy," he said. "I'm not sure if I'm going to like  going forward with autonomous driving. That takes a little  of the fun away."

Heisen, managing director of abatUS, comes from a part  of Germany that is rich in automotive history.  "We're the Scottish of Germany - which means prudent,  not spending money, those kind of things," he said. "But also, we are very intuitive in  engineering."


BLG Logistics investing $7.1M in Alabama expansion
By Tuscaloosa News



BLG Logistics Inc., a German company that provides third-party logistics services to automotive manufacturers, on Thursday announced a $7.1 million expansion to its headquarters in Vance, bringing 43 new jobs to the Tuscaloosa area.

The company is a subsidiary of the BLG Logistics Group AG & Co. KG, a 140-year-old company that provides more than 16,000 jobs worldwide. Their Vance operation began in 2004 to provide support to Mercedes Benz U.S. International and expanded once before in 2010.

The Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority approved about $650,000 in tax abatements for the expansion during a meeting of their board of directors meeting Thursday.


How Germany wins at manufacturing
By NPR.com

The United States needs to create more manufacturing jobs: That has been a constant refrain of President Trump and was one of the goals of the corporate tax cut recently passed by Congress and signed into law. The loss of manufacturing jobs has been a problem for many countries, especially the U.S. It played a big role in Trump's election.  Germany, however, continues to maintain manufacturing as a large share of its economy. It makes up nearly a quarter of the German economy, about twice the share that manufacturing has in the U.S. economy.

How do the Germans do it? Are there any lessons for the U.S.? After World War II, Germany put in place a financial and institutional structure that supported manufacturing, but the economy's emphasis on "making things" goes back much further to a tradition of very capable small and middle-size companies called the Mittelstand. In Germany, they are seen as the foundation of the country's manufacturing success.

Click here for NPR.com's full story. 

Berlin Wall have been down for 10,316 days 



February 5, 2018 is a special date: on this day the Berlin Wall has been down for as long as it stood, 10,316 days. What once divided a city, Europe, the world, but most of all people, is now history.

Today, all along the former path of the wall, you can find memorials to the people who lost their lives attempting to cross to freedom, an outdoor art gallery, and commemorative iron bricks marking its demise. Pieces of the once oppressive bulwark can also be found all over the world, including here at the German Embassy. No longer a symbol only of oppression, the Berlin Wall remnants today represent the peaceful triumph of freedom over tyranny.