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New York Chapter

The Forum for Expatriate Management New York Chapter is run by Michael Cadden and Cathy Heyne of Living Abroad LLC. The FEM monthly networking meetings are now the preeminent event in New York for all Global Mobility professionals.

Further information can be obtained from: fem@livingabroad.com or by calling 1.203.221.1997.

There is no charge for corporate members and there is a $150 charge per supplier, per person assuming they have a valid Supplier Membership of $550. If you would like to know more about the registration process or have a any questions please enquire with Ben Tibber, ben.tibber@centaur.co.uk .

This Chapter is part of the Tri-State Chapters.

Membership of New York includes membership of New Jersey and Connecticut.

New York Calendar

6th June - Equity Awards and Global Mobility – The Challenges of Compliance - Register

We are pleased to announce that KPMG LLP will be hosting the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) New York Chapter’s next meeting, run by Michael Cadden and Cathy Heyne of Living Abroad LLC, on March 7 at KPMG’s offices located at 345 Park Avenue, New York.

At this meeting, KPMG professionals will share their perspectives on the challenges of global compliance when equity awards are granted to international assignees.

With the continued and expanding use of equity-based compensation tax authorities around the globe, and within the US, have put renewed focus on the associated tax compliance and payroll requirements as a means to generate additional revenue. Trailing liabilities created by a mobile workforce bring recognized complexities such as tracking, sourcing and tax compliance of specific award grants as well as the practical difficulties in complying with employer and employee reporting obligations. Such challenges may even impact programs such as tax equalization for several years after repatriation and add significant costs to equity administration. Whether you already have an equity process in place for your mobile employees or are currently thinking about implementing one, this session will address today’s practical global and domestic issues and provide best practices for you to consider.

2nd May - Maintaining Peak Performance in Dangerous Parts of the World and the Challenges of Re-Entry

In what will be a fascinating discussion, Pat will speak about the challenges of re-entry, and what an organization can do to help those returning from assignments. Pat has worked with New York Times journalists going into difficult parts of the world. For over twenty years, Pat has coached executives in the media, pharmaceutical companies, consumer product companies, financial and professional services, real estate, communications, not-for-profit organizations and academia. She was Director of Human Resources at the New York Times, Manager of Training at the New York Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University, and most recently has worked with Guttman Development Strategies, a leadership development firm.

Pat Drew & Company provides services for high functioning individuals and organizations. It aligns teams, manages transition and teaches resilience. Pat and her team support New York Times journalists and corporate executives in challenging overseas assignments including major assignments with Middle Eastern women journalists.

The Last Events

10th January - Challenges of International Assignees in Emerging Markets

Karen Beyer is the Manager of Global Benefits at GE Corp Headquarters. GE is a diversified company with products & services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing & security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing & industrial products serving more than 100 countries with 300,000+ employees worldwide.

15th November - The Impact of Schooling issues on Talent Mobility after the Great Recession

We are pleased to announce that the The Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) New York Chapter, run by Michael Cadden and Cathy Heyne of Living Abroad LLC will be holding their next meeting on November 15, 2012.

Hosted by KPMG at 345 Park Ave in NYC

As we slowly climb out of the Great Recession, which began in 2008, banks have been among the hardest hit and that continues to this day.

Kathy Thompson has been with Citi for 22 years and has been heading their Global Mobility function since 2000. Having a front row seat to how the Great Recession dramatically impacted how talent moves around the world to support business objectives, Kathy will share her perspectives.

Liz Perelstein, Founder and Chair of School Choice International, and a recognized woman business leader, has also had a front seat. She has seen key talent turn down assignments and families pulled from assignments only to be sent out again.

One of the great challenges as the global business climate has changed has been lack of availability of suitable schooling in the locations where businesses need to move talent today. Astronomic increases in the price of debentures is raising stakes for companies and leaving families with even greater uncertainty about school places. In the macro environment, continued pressure to ensure efficiency and cost effectiveness within all areas of service delivery is calling for creative approaches.

This session will use case studies describing education challenges in oversubscribed locations, and through them will identify strategies that have been successful for Citi families. Whether in emerging markets like Brazil and Hong Kong or in major cities like London and New York where school placement is historically tricky, School Choice International and Citi will share collaborative strategies they have used to facilitate business talent mobility objectives.

20th September - Structuring Expatriate Postings and Secondments

Too often when a multinational needs to send an employee on an overseas assignment, someone suggests just grabbing the form “expat” assignment letter from the last expatriate assignment, changing the names, filling in the blanks, buying an airplane ticket, and moving on. Unfortunately, though, structuring an expat assignment is never quite so easy. There are several very-different expat structures; each multinational usually has various expats working abroad, simultaneously, under various different structures. Structure your next expat assignment in the way that best meets your business needs. That might not be the same way someone structured your last expat assignment. If not, this time you will need a different set of forms to document the assignment.

May 3 - Global Security: Best Practices for Preparing and Supporting Employees While on International Assignment

This informative panel discussed the general global safety and security environment for expatriates and their dependents. It focused on the importance of providing relevant real-time intelligence and monitoring through advanced technology.

Guest Speakers:

Jeff Winton – Director of Partnerships at iJET
Nancy Monk – Executive Director, Alliance Management at Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services
Emma White – Director, Global Consulting Group at Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services

March 1 - The HR Pioneer-Working in Cuba

Guest Speaker:

Janet Walsh, President and CEO of Birchtree Global, LLC

Date: Thursday, March 1, 2012

The program will focus on the twenty key issues HR professionals should consider when their companies enter a new market for the first time. Using Cuba as an example, where she will be visiting next week, Janet will share her template and thoughts on working with business colleagues as part of company expansion into new markets.

Janet Walsh is the President and CEO of Birchtree Global, LLC, a business services firm that provides the legal, financial and HR infrastructure for companies expanding outside their home countries. In the past 25 years, she has worked in over 65 countries for a broad and diverse group of client companies. She is a visiting professor of Business at Keller Graduate School of Management and a contributing author to the recent textbook, “Economics for Managers”. She led the first World Trade Center Atlanta and GA State business development trip to Cairo, Egypt as well as participated in the first women-in-manufacturing state visit to China. In her spare time, she is a competitive equestrienne and amateur archeologist with the Explorer’s Club.

Like all of our networking events, our New York meetings are free to all in-house Global Mobility professionals and Professional Association personnel. After the program, we hope you can stay to enjoy appetizers and drinks as you network with your peers.

12 January - Developing Business Immigration 2012: Mobility Trends, Legal Outlook and Legislative Forecast by Ethan Kaufman of Fragomen

Guest Speaker – Ethan E. Kaufman, Partner Resident, Fragomen, NYC

The holiday festivities continue into the New Year with a review of how global economic instability and electoral politics are shaping business immigration policy and practice in corporate America. The program will cover recent mobility program trends followed by a concise update on key business immigration practice issues and compliance initiatives. The program will conclude with a discussion of the legislative and regulatory proposals with traction in D.C. and their impact on current business immigration program management.

2nd November - Transformation of Global Mobility: Redefining the Outcomes

Transformation of Global Mobility: Redefining the Outcomes

PepsiCo, with a talent strategy focused on the right people in the right place, is in the final stage of transforming its Global Mobility function to:

Ensure that talent is borderless–The right people, in the right place, at the right time, in the right way… and for the right investment
Strive for outcomes the improve the results for the business leaders
Meet the talent development goals of PepsiCo associates, while improving the experience for assignees and their families
Streamline systems and processes to be more effective for both the business and assignees
Define a career development path for members of the deployment team to meet their personal goals

Rock Provillon, Senior Director, Global Mobility, will share the transformation story – and what needs to happen next – with us at the November 2^nd meeting. Rock has 20 years of experience in the world of global mobility and human resources. He is with PepsiCo for nearly 10 years and worked in a number of Compensation and Benefits roles prior to assuming his current role three years ago. Before joining PepsiCo, he spent nearly 10 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers advising clients on international assignment related matters and worked in their New York, Connecticut and London offices.

September 15 - Provident/Pension Funds – Confronting Social Security Changes in India

Recently, India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment issued a notification and further amended the Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme (“EPFS”) and Employees’ Pension Scheme (“EPS”) in respect of International Workers (“IWs”). The amendments may adversely impact IWs who are already on their assignments in India and have made significant social security contributions, as they may have to wait a considerable period of time before being able to withdraw sums from their PF accounts. The amendments may put pressure on those countries which have not entered into SSAs to now enter into such agreements with India. The amendments will likely cause financial hardships to IWs who were making contributions to PF under the impression that they can withdraw the PF balance in their accounts on completion of their employment in India.

June 2 - AN HR MANIFESTO: CREATING “WORLD-READY WORKERS©”

Speaker: Dean Foster – President, Dean Foster Associates, Intercultural Global Solutions

Achieving success in the 21st century – the global century – requires mastery of a set of cross-cultural skills that go far beyond traditional notions of expertise, and which are, unfortunately, rarely taught in school, at any level, least of all at the MBA. In fact, in the 21st century, the competitive advantage – for jobs and profit – goes to those individuals who can translate their functional expertise across cultures, and to those organizations who insist on and develop workers at every level – from support through management to leadership – who understand how to do their job across cultures, time zones and in the trans-national environment.

In short, in the 21st century, the hard skills have become easy, and the soft skills have become hard. This presentation will explore the criteria for being a “world-ready worker©”, how organizations can develop “world-ready workers©”, why this issue needs to become social policy, and how international HR will predictably be at the vanguard of this movement. Are you ready for World-Ready Workers©?

Like all of our networking events, our New York meetings are free to all in-house Global Mobility professionals and Professional Association personnel. After the program, we hope you can stay to enjoy light appetizers and drinks as you network with your peers.

May 5 - The Link Between Talent Management and Global Mobility

We are pleased to announce that the The Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM) New York Chapter, run by Michael Cadden and Cathy Heyne of Living Abroad LLC and hosted by KPMG, held their next meeting on May 5, 2011.

Linking talent management and global mobility has long been an HR mandate since it is a business imperative – where are you on the continuum? Please join us for a spirited discussion of what this means and how it is best accomplished. We are fortunate to have both Terry Hogan – Director, Executive Development, Citi Group and Maria Jimenez, Director, Executive Talent Management, American Express to lead us through what are considered the successful building blocks toward realizing the benefits of linking the two.

April 7 – 2011 Technology Tools for HR – A panel discussion

Leveraging HR Mobility Technology for 2011 – A Panel Discussion

Wondering about all the new HR Technology and how these tools can help you in your job? Join us as these four experts discuss the coming technology trends and tools that are changing the mobility world in 2011.

Daniel Baum, President, The Real Estate Group (NYC)
Michael Cadden, Managing Director, Living Abroad LLC
Kallol Ghosh, Tax & Technology Director, KPMG
Robert Horsley, Executive Director, Fragomen

Discussion Topics:

Social Media – Connect with your assignees.

Compliance Systems – Country governments are watching you. How do you minimize risk?

Self-Help Tools – How expats can find answers with no HR involvement.

Mobile Tools & Systems – Keeping track of your assignees and business travelers.

Video Applications – Apps that aid employees internationally.

March 9 - Managing the Global Mobility Function – a Benchmarking Study

The Forum for Expatriate Management recently published a brand new survey on the Global Mobility function with insights on how global mobility services are organized and delivered to an international assignee population. The study specifically looks at how leading edge companies manage their teams and provides key information including:

Assignees/Team Member Ratios
Team Structure and Reporting Lines,
Outsourcing
Professional Qualifications of team members

A number of trends from this survey will be brought to life by our distinguished panel of experts whose companies have wrestled with similar issues:

Rob Melz, Vice President, State Street Corporation
Delphine Swierc, Manager, General Electric Company
Adele Yeargan, Head, Global Mobility, ITT Corporation

These three professionals represent companies running the spectrum from limited, partial and full outsourcing, moving from decentralized to centralized structure, introduction of global technology, etc. Come learn how they decided how best to structure their global mobility functions and why. Hear them explain the attributes that were present and, therefore, why certain decisions were made. Specifics include:

What works better: Centralized or decentralized administration?
What is being outsourced and why?

3rd February 2011- Expatriate or Local: Which Assignment Type is Right

Guest speaker: Tricia Danielsen, Director, Global Mobility, The Nielsen Company

Costs play an important role when moving employees internationally. Looking at the bottom line, a local assignment transfer may seem more attractive than an expatriate one, but care must be taken to ensure that the right assignment is offered.

30th November 2010 – US & China: Multi Cultural Impact on Talent Development

This was presented by Lindamarie Werntz Coatman, Chief Administrative Officer/Head of Human Resources, China Merchant Bank & Edward Franco, Vice President-Global Benefits, Aon Consulting

Eddie and Lindamarie have many years experience working with international companies doing business in places outside their home country. They both have extensive experience in working with organizations from China. In addition, Eddie has gathered compelling data on how the Chinese culture has transformed over the years. Eddie and Lindamarie will speak about their experiences in working with professionals from China and how cultivation of talent is pivotal to an organization’s success.

20th October - Global Wellness and Healthcare Implications in the Reform Era

Presented by Allen C. Koski, Vice President, CIGNA International Expatriate Benefits

Come learn how healthcare reform in all countries are affecting global programs along with how wellness initiatives have now become global initiatives. As American companies have been focused on wellness programs as a way to help manage total medical cost, we will investigate the varied health and wellness concerns of a multi-national workforce. We will focus our comparisons on the effectiveness of wellness programs like health assessments and condition management programs for expatriate and local national populations.

September 22 - Localization: Leading Practices, Common Myths, Frequent Mistakes, and Golden Opportunities – A Panel Discussion

Panel: Jarrod Schwartz, Director, International Assignment Management, UBS, Tim Dwyer, Chief Operating Officer, School Choice International, Chris Hogan, Tax Managing Director, KPMG

Economic hard times are forcing companies to continue to cut costs wherever possible — global mobility programs are not immune. One such area that some companies are considering as an option is localization – a term which is variously defined and often misapplied. The concept of localization is about a lot more than just compensation and, when done correctly, can offer real and immediate opportunities for cost-savings.

June 3 - It’s Ba-a-a-a-ck – The Cash Alternative to the Traditional Expat Package

While senior mobility specialists usually build their mobility programs around the balance sheet, they are often asked why they make it so complicated – “why not just give cash?” This question comes up every few years and many professionals are hard-pressed to explain the answer without looking inflexible. Given the impression that this is easier and cheaper, the questions are arising again now. Rob’s talk provided some discussion of the issues involved in answering these questions and getting to the right answer for your organization.

April 1 ‘Localizing Americans: Understanding Their Unique Financial Planning Issues’

March 4: Networking event – KPMG Global Mobility program.

February 4: ”Selection and Critical Talent Development in Economically Troubled Times”

January 14: ‘Social Networking and International Assignees ‘

Photos from recent events: