Location Menlo Park (Silicon Valley & San Francisco area) The third Invest in Slovakia seminar took place in the IT cradle of the USA with the aim to attract companies’ attention exactly from this sector. This time the seminar was opened and led by Barbara Pivnicka, the Honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic in California who brilliantly introduced each speaker emphasizing each presentation’s purpose in the quest to introduce Slovakia’s investment environment to the audience gathered at Menlo Park. Similarly as during the two previous seminars, Peter Burian, the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic has addressed the audience with welcoming words, followed by the speech of Juraj Miskov, the Minister of Economy of the SR. During his speech, the Minister has emphasized the Ministry of Economy’s elevated intention to focus on improving the business environment especially for startups and SMEs. At the California seminar, Robert Simoncic, CEO of SARIO has also tailored his presentation in order to target the IT sector more effectively. Mr. Simoncic’s yeas of professional experience in the USA in the IT sphere provided excellent talking points for comparing the two countries and especially offering convincing arguments why to invest in Slovakia in new and innovative business fields. The audience in Menlo Park had also a chance to hear a presentation by Ken Ryan, Director of Transactions for CEE at KPMG who introduced Central and Eastern Europe and Jake Slegers, Executive Director of AmCham in Slovakia presenting the Chamber as an institution fully assisting American companies in various fields and making their business activities and networking just easier. The third seminar had also two great case studies by already established US companies in Slovakia. Firstly, Patrick J. Mullarkey, serving as Vice-President in US Steel Kosice from 2007 till 2010, shared his insights about US Steel’s successful establishment in Slovakia and good impression from the economic environment for the company. The second case study was presented by Martin Kubala, General Manager of HP Slovakia, which corporate headquarter is located in close proximity to the Invest in Slovakia seminar in Menlo Park. He presented the success story of HP in Slovakia and pointed out the advantages of relocating global business processes into Central and Eastern Europe.
