Kanya Amorntheerakul, Director, Thai Trade Center Miami

Ms. Amorntheerakul is Director of the Thai Trade Center in Miami. Her main duty is to promote international trade between Thailand and other countries through trade fairs and promotion of Thai exports. As well, she is instrumental in seeking markets for Thai exporters worldwide.

Her career began in 1976 as a trade officer in the Department of Export Promotion in Bangkok. From then on until today she has headed Thai Trade Centers worldwide including Sydney, Australia; New York; Kunming, China; and Chicago. She returned briefly to Bangkok to head Trade Logistics at the Department of Export Promotion in Bangkok before assuming her present position in Miami. She has also had overseas experience in Japan, Kenya, Germany, Turkey, Australia, Bulgaria and Laos among other countries.

Ms. Amorntheerakul has a B.A. in Business Administration from Ratchamongkol University in Thailand and has taken special courses to earn her the title of Visionary Leader Number 62 in the Office of the Civil Service Commission. She has been honored with the Insignia of “Special Praise is due to the Milky Way”, the most exalted Order of the White Elephant.

Susan K. Purcell, Director, University of Miami Center of Hemispheric Policy

Dr. Susan Kaufman Purcell is the director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami. Prior to assuming her current position in 2005, she was vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society in New York. Between 1981 and 1988, Dr. Purcell was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. She also served on the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Before joining the U.S. government, Dr. Purcell was a tenured professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She holds a B.A. degree in Spanish from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Columbia University. Dr. Purcell has written, co-authored or co-edited eleven books and nearly 200 articles. She also writes a column for AméricaEconomía magazine and regularly comments on developments in Latin America on radio and television programs in the United States, Latin America and Europe. Dr. Purcell is a director of Valero Energy Corporation, a Fortune 100 company based in San Antonio, Texas, and is a member of the advisory board of The Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Olga Ramudo, President, Express Travel

After years of being a stay at home mother, Olga Ramudo decided to venture into the travel business by becoming an independent contractor for a small travel agency. Partnering with her sister and a best friend, that part time job took them further when they decided to start their own business in 1989.

Specializing in the Hispanic market and with a strong commitment to community involvement and customer service, Express Travel became one of the top ten travel agencies in Miami, later expanding its reach to the State of Florida as well as offering services all over the world.

Olga Ramudo has conspicuously pioneered and led the charge to not only promote and grow the South Florida tourism industry, but also has provided an outstanding public role model as a successful women owned business who has always found the time to serve the South Florida community and her industry through leadership appointments on numerous local, state and international organizations. She has been a prominent tourism community leader for over 20 years and has volunteered for leadership positions on hundreds of local events, which have resulted in millions of dollars of economic impact and new jobs for South Florida’s local and State tourism. Additionally, Olga has donated her time and experience to many organizations serving on committees to promote bilingual education in order to maintain the “Gateway of the Americas” designation for South Florida.

Express Travel has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout the years. Some of these are: ranked among the largest Hispanic companies in the nation in 2011 and one of the 100 fastest growing Hispanic Companies in 2008 as reported by Hispanic Business Magazine; included as one of the largest minority businesses in Dade County by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and listed among the largest women owned business in South Florida by the South Florida Business Journal. Express Travel ranked number sixth fastest growing Hispanic company in the nation in 2007 as reported by Hispanic Trends Magazine and one of the fastest growing companies in South Florida in 2011 as listed by the South Florida Business Journal. The Academy of Hospitality and Tourism recognized Express Travel in the Meetings and Business Tourism category in 2007.

Olga Ramudo has also been recognized as one of the top influential women business leaders in Miami Dade County by Camacol (Latin Chamber of Commerce and listed as one of the “Best of Miami 2007” by Miami Today in recognition for promoting international trade. Owit of Florida bestowed her with the 2008 International Business Woman of the Year award and most recently the American Society of Travel Agents paid tribute to Olga at their annual gala dinner by bestowing her with the national advocacy award in recognition of her significant contribution on behalf of the travel agency community before federal state and local governments as well as recognizing her as travel agent of the year for 2011 .

Express Travel is comprised of corporate, leisure, groups and meetings, cruise and study abroad departments.

Olga Ramudo sits on the Board of Directors of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Camacol (Latin Chamber of Commerce) and Ana G. Mendez University of Puerto Rico. Miami’s Board of County Commissioners appointed Olga to Dade County’s Tourism Development Council. Olga chairs the International Global Linkage Committee for the Greater Miami Chamber of commerce as well as the joint Hispanic initiatives committee for ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) and NTA (National Tour Association). Most recently, Secretary of Commerce John E. Bryson appointed Olga to serve a two-year term at the U. S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board.

Olga studied in Puerto Rico and has two grown sons, Luis and Daniel.

Mimi Whitefield, International Business Reporter, The Miami Herald

As international business writer and Cuba correspondent for The Miami Herald, Mimi Whitefield has chronicled everything from the impact of free trade pacts and international real estate buyers to the economic reforms sweeping Cuba.

Whitefield has been involved in international coverage for more than two decades and has reported from more than two dozen countries in the Americas. She was The Herald's South American bureau chief, based in Rio de Janeiro, in the mid-1980s, and served as the paper’s full-time Cuba writer from 1989 until January 1995.

She began her career at The Miami Herald in 1980 as a business writer and covered a variety of beats from Caribbean business, money laundering and the ports to the media, telecommunications, minority business and tourism.

For much of the past decade, Whitefield was an editor on The Herald’s business desk, serving first as editor of the Business Monday section and then as special projects editor where she edited several prize-winning series.

Whitefield has won national reporting awards for coverage of human rights in Cuba, real estate, and drug trafficking in Latin America, and was part of The Herald team that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Elián González story. She also has won regional prizes for coverage of money laundering in the Caribbean, job creation and the challenges facing the South Florida economy, Florida’s changing demographics, and small business.

After receiving an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University, she worked for United Press International in Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Miami. Whitefield also has a B.A. from Cornell University in Latin American studies. She lives in Miami Lakes with her husband Clease Bair, a school administrator, and daughter Alexandra, an architecture student.