OIA names roster for Island Fellows

The Office of Insular Affairs announced the roster of the sixth Island Fellows Program last May 19 in Washington, D.C. The team is comprised of eight MBA candidates from the Columbia School of Business, the Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania, the Kellogg School of Management in Northwestern University, the McDonough School of Business in Georgetown University, the Harvard Business School, and the University of Hawaii.

They will begin their 10-week program in Washington, DC on June 11, 2008. Over the past few years, the Island Fellows program has made significant contributions to the Department of the Interior’s ongoing efforts to promote private sector-led economic development in the U.S.-affiliated insular areas, conducting field research and outreach in support of large-scale events hosted by the Department of the Interior.

Debbie Wissel, an MBA student at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has been assigned to the CNMI. She will arrive Saipan on June 18 and stay for approximately two weeks. While in the CNMI, Wissel will be meeting with local businesses and government leaders to identify their priorities for the types of businesses that the CNMI people believe should be invited to the fifth Secretary of the Interior’s Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands, to be held in Honolulu April 6-8, 2009. When Wissel returns to Washington, DC, she will begin to market the next Conference actively, and OIA staff will welcome recommendations from business owners in the CNMI for making the next Conference the best one yet.

Wissel will also help OIA introduce a new business tool to be known as “Island Business Link.” It is a web-based system to facilitate the matching of island based businesses with businesses anywhere in the world and is based on the model OIA used for the “business-to-business (B2B) meetings” that were held at the last two Conferences. While on-island, Wissel will be conducting workshops for government and business leaders on how the system works. Ideally, the workshops will be followed by one-on-one meetings between the Island Fellow and individuals to answer questions and actually to post some CNMI business opportunities to the system.

The Island Fellows will return to Washington, D.C., on July 4, and in addition to providing continuing support for the rollout of Island Business Link, they will also work on the development and outreach for the next Conference on Business Opportunities in the Islands. The contact person for the Island Fellowship program as well as IslandBusinessLink.com is Angie Williams who may be emailed at angela_williams@ios.doi.gov.

In the CNMI, the contact for these programs is the Secretary of Commerce, James Santos. To meet with the Island Fellow or to make arrangements to attend one of the workshops, call the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Michael Ada at 664-3003 or email him at depcommerce.ada@gmail.com. [B][I](OIA)[/I][/B]