The Export-Import Bank Announces First Recipients of Fiscal Year 2014 Export Awards
April 17, 2015
(Ex-Im Bank)
Washington, D.C. – Today the Export-Import Bank
of the U.S. (Ex-Im Bank) announced the first
recipients of five of its annual export awards
in advance of its 2015 Annual Conference to be
held April 23-24 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in
Washington, DC.
"We are pleased to recognize such important
contributors to American exports throughout the
course of last year," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman
and President Fred P. Hochberg. "Each
organization proved instrumental in boosting
U.S. exports abroad and supporting good-paying
jobs in communities across America."
In fiscal year 2014, Ex-Im Bank approved
transactions totaling $20.5 billion, supporting
an estimated $27.5 billion in U.S. export sales
as well as approximately 164,000 American jobs.
Ex-Im Bank exists to fill private sector
financing gaps and to level the playing field
for U.S. exporters and workers.
These awards and others, like Small Business
Exporter of the Year and Deal of the Year, will
be conferred upon the recipients in a ceremony
on the first day of the Bank's Annual
Conference, which is set to convene at the
OmniShoreham Hotel in Washington DC April 24
and April 25.
Sub-Saharan Africa Exporter of the Year:
W.S. Darley & Co., Itasca, Illinois
A conversation with Henry Ford in 1926 helped
prompt Chicago businessman William Stuart
Darley to transform his business from an
equipment manufacturer to a producer of
firefighting trucks. Nearly 90 years later,
W.S. Darley & Co. – still a family-owned
business – continues to manufacture and sell
high-quality fire trucks, pumps and equipment
for a wide range of customers around the world.
When private sources proved to be unavailable
to support the longer financing terms needed,
Darley sought support from Ex-Im Bank, which
provided a $15.7 million direct loan to the
government of Lagos. With Ex-Im's financing,
W.S. Darley was able to export 32
state-of-the-art, fully equipped firefighting
vehicles, maintenance support equipment and
training services to Lagos.
Minority Exporter of the Year: Northrock
Enterprises, Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Northrock Enterprises is a minority-owned
company of procurement specialists that helps
global customers to find the right products,
services and suppliers to lower their supply
chain costs and increase efficiency. Their
services include purchasing, consolidation and
the shipment of goods such as valves, pumps,
compressors, conveyor systems, electrical
products and more. As an Ex-Im Bank multi-buyer
policyholder and recipient of the Bank's Global
Credit Express Loan, Northrock experienced
substantial export sales growth from 2013 to
2015. Sales increased by 50 percent within the
first year of using Ex-Im's products. The
company is now poised to double sales in 2015 –
with over 80 percent of sales export-related.
Lender of the Year: NorthStar Trade Finance,
Vancouver, Canada
NorthStar Trade Finance, a Canadian lender
based in Vancouver with a U.S. presence in New
York City, Houston and Chicago, is a specialist
in providing financing solutions to small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are
pursuing opportunities in the global
marketplace. SMEs often find that there is
limited appetite for risk sharing in many
foreign markets, but Northstar is an active and
successful partner with Ex-Im Bank is providing
medium-term buyer financing. A frequent user of
delegated authority from Ex-Im Bank, NorthStar
has completed more than 30 buyer-credit
transactions.
Broker of the Year: Securitas Global Risk
Solutions, Berwyn, Pa.
Founded in 2004 by Peter Seneca and Kirk Elken,
Securitas provides customized solutions,
educates exporters and their lenders on export
credit insurance, and supplies proactive
customer service. The agency's volume of
business has increase by 50 percent over the
past year, due in large part to their increased
outreach and referrals. Securitas's clients who
are Ex-Im Bank policy holders include
businesses from Florida to Vermont, with a
concentration in New Jersey and northeastern
Pennsylvania where the agency works closely
with Ex-Im's local city/state partner, the
World Trade Center of Greater Philadelphia.
City/State Partner of the Year: Small
Business and Technology Development Center,
Raleigh, N.C.
The Small Business and Technology Development
Center (SBTDC) at N.C. State is the business
and technology extension service of The
University of North Carolina. It is
administered by North Carolina State University
and operated in partnership with U.S. Small
Business Administration. Since 1997, the
SBTDC's International Business Development
program has partnered with Ex-Im Bank to
empower small businesses to achieve better
export results.
Ex-Im Bank's 2015 Annual Conference will
feature remarks and panel discussions with some
of the world's leading voices in business and
trade, including Ambassador Susan Rice, US
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker; Doug
Oberhelman, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar
Inc.; W. James McNerney, Jr., chairman and CEO
of The Boeing Company; Steven Rattner, chairman
of Willett Advisors LLC; Joe Kaeser, president
and CEO of Siemens AG; Stephen S. Poloz,
governor of the Bank of Canada; Jacqueline
Hinman, chairman and CEO of CH2M Hill; Yousef
Al Otaiba, Ambassador of the United Arab
Emirates to the United States; and Dr. Mo
Ibrahim, founder and chairman of the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation, established in 2006 to support good
governance and leadership on the African
continent.
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