Building relations in Latin America

February 2018

Following the successful Americas Conference in Houston, Russell Bedford CEO, Stephen Hamlet, embarked on a whirlwind tour around Latin America, visiting members in four locations in five days.

The tour provided a fantastic opportunity for Stephen to meet with Russell Bedford’s Latin American firms to build relations, discuss their business challenges and consider how their firms could take advantage of the various network benefits in support of achieving their wider business goals.

Starting his tour in Mexico City, Stephen met with Mexican partners from nine key regions. During the meeting, Stephen gave an update on network expansion, sharing the results and developments of 2017, future plans for the network and the various new projects Russell Bedford International is involved in this year. Stephen also heard directly from members about the importance of the network’s presence in Mexico, learning more about how this strong network of firms work closely together on executing their common objectives and values in support of growth both inside and outside the Mexican region.

Next stop Guatemala! After a very constructive meeting with the partners, Stephen met with the team and visited some of their clients – a rare opportunity to see members in their natural habitat and hear from our members’ clients on how having global support helps them to do business without boundaries. Stephen tweeted: “Delighted to meet such a young vibrant team @RussellBedford member firm in #GuatemalaCity and my pleasure to visit a couple of their top clients to represent our #InternationalNetwork and discuss our #GlobalPresence”.

Stephen’s third stop was San José in Costa Rica. After a fantastic welcome from member firm Russell Bedford Costa Rica, he met the talented team who represents the network in the Costa Rica and discussed network developments over the previous months and objectives for the year ahead.

Stephen’s final stop was to Miami and a visit to member firm, Alonso & García, P.A. where he was greeted by this vibrant team of professionals who are bursting with positivity and ambition. After a warm introduction with the team, the group discussed the benefits of belonging to an international network and how they can get the most out of their membership.

After five productive days touring around Latin America, Stephen’s tour drew to a close and his mission to become more familiar with member firms and understand what they need from their membership was fulfilled.

Talking about his tour, Stephen said: “Despite the dominance of the digital age, for me, there is no better way to get to know people and understand the way they do business than face to face. I made a promise last year, when I joined as Russell Bedford CEO, to make a meaningful effort to visit more members in more regions, not only to help me gain a better understanding of how the network works, but also to understand what our members need from their membership.”

He added: “After yet another successful tour where I had the pleasure of meeting many more of the professionals who make up this inspirational international network of firms, I am once again blown away by the, positivity, the resilience and the sheer determination of each and every one of them. It is this enthusiasm that is ingrained throughout the network that gets me excited about the job I do – it’s infectious and motivating and it makes me so excited about progressing our many new projects and looking forward to what’s around the next corner.”