With AMCHAM looking for a new head and the need for a distraction on a somber day, I thought I would post something on the things I have been hearing the past few days, and see what others have to say.
There seem to be a number of people talked about. My favorite one was a Canadian English teacher saying they should make Mike Breen head. I grinned, bared it, and quick extricated myself from that shallow end of the gene pool.
There seems to be a lot to talk of Steve McKinney in the role. I do not know if he is campaigning or people are drafting him. In my few conversations with him, I found him amiable and perhaps up to the task. Yet something tells me he would be a radical departure from the gentle, big-business tone of Overby, which on second thought may not be a bad thing.
A friend/source, which is usually pretty connected and honest, stated that somebody in AMCHAM is thinking of tapping Amy Jackson, who I never met (then again I am bad with names and faces). She is currently a trade consultant with Crowell. It fits a few ways, mostly the dead-horse KORUS trade agreement that AMCHAM is always frantically flogging. Anyway, like I said, it’s a rumor.
Personally, I think AMCHAM Korea will continue its current demure tone, and might one-up everyone. It would not surprise me in the least to find AMCHAM choosing a well-connected older Korean-American in some JV.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
“There seem to be a number of people talked about. My favorite one was a Canadian English teacher saying they should make Mike Breen head. I grinned, bared it, and quick extracated myself from that shallow end of the gene pool.”
Perhaps Dram_Man wouldn’t look like such an sad little twat if he managed to mock English teachers using decent English. I assume for Dram_Man its better to work as an editor with the English skills of a slow 11-year-old than an English teacher, but if I were him I would refrain from mocking those who clearly better suited for both their jobs and his.
Opps – make that “… a sad little twat.”
Obviously I am not an English teacher either.
What exactly did you BARE? I pity that poor “shallow end of the gene pool,” who appeared to have seen more of Dram Man than he needed to.
“Sad little twat.” I like that. Must use it more.
Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if the knuckleheads finally just put one of the foxes in charge of the hen house.
with all the mocking of English teachers going on lately, maybe this site should consider forming a partnership with the anti English Spectrum crowd
“A friend/source, which is usually pretty connected and honest”
HURRRDURRR
Nothing so consistently lowers the rent and resale values around the Marmot’s Hole like a post by the linguistically challenged DRAM MAN.
Dram_man,
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
And if the best you can do is spread rumors and then try to cover your ass by actually telling us that you’re spreading rumors, then I would suggestion that you just shut it.
Give him a break. What don’t you understand about the title “AMCHAM Rumor Mill” anyway?
Oh I get it. Faulting someone as a “sad little twat” for not using “decent English” was an attempt at self-defecating irony, right?
The last refuge of a scoundral is playing grammar Nazi.
Did you mean: scoundrel
I see what you did there.
Sorry, my speling is atrocious, and so are my bowels…
You’re full of shit.
Mike Breen, to me, would be a reasoned choice.
Amy Jackson I know not….so cannot say.
But Steve McKinney is always campaigning for himself, so no surprise he is in the rumor mill.
Is anyone else starting to notice dram man’s strange obsession with “Canadian English teachers”?
twelvesmoothstones — We’re lucky to have three good names floating around. McKinney’s the best of them, so your comment is not appreciated.
Steve McKinney is an entrepreneur, so it is only natural that he would always be hustling for his constituency — which is the employees of his firm McKinney Consulting, and the family of Steve McKinney. He’s been a country manager for a multinational, a small-business startup, and an AMCHAM elected Governor. He also busted his hump on the new Yongsan school project, playing a crucial (unpaid and more or less thankless) role in getting it going, and rescuing the project when the Foundation couldn’t agree with the British School. AMCHAM’s erstwhile constituency — American businesses (remember them?) — should be so lucky to have someone of Steve’s caliber hustling for them full-time.
Mike Breen is, to my knowledge, not American. Which is not to say that he’s not very smart and would not be able to work effectively for American interests, but in my opinion it would be most appropriate for AMCHAM to be led by an American citizen. I hope that Mike is not invested in being AMCHAM President.
As for Amy Jackson, I am sure she’s a very capable woman. She is, I understand, closely linked to the FTA and to Tami Overby. It could be expected that Jackson would continue the Overby policies. If one believes that the FTA is a great American achievement, and approves of AMCHAM’S
deteriorationdirection in the last 10-15 years, Amy Jackson might be a good choice.As for me, I think AMCHAM is due for a change, which would make Steve McKinney seem the best of the three. The organization, back in the days when its dues were much lower and there were many fewer members, used to publish quite a bit of useful information. It no longer publishes a damn thing, unlike the prolific output of the EU Chamber. The AMCHAM Journal once reported on things other than social events. Now it’s best consulted as a sloppy-looking bimonthly reference to where Tami smoked her latest cigar, or which golf course Jeff Jones visited latest. Its committees somehow were able to meet once a while too. These days, it seems AMCHAM is singularly focused on organizing its annual prom for Chrysler to give away some embarrassing-looking car, and on flogging that Partners for the Future Foundation. Its role as mouthpiece for American interests seems to have been deprecated in favor of being “popular” with Korea, and that’s not always possible to achieve. I’d rather AMCHAM fought for American business.
These numbers are from the 2004 AMCHAM directory. The first number is the company’s total employees, followed in brackets by the number of foreign employees.
3M: 680 (1)
Accenture: 450 (5)
Adidas: 250 (1)
Agfa: 170 (2)
AIG: 650 (8)
Allianz: 2554 (13)
American Express: 63 (1)
Apple: 22 (2)
Bank of America: 122 (2)
Bank of Nova Scotia: 37 (1)
BASF: 1090 (11)
Baskin Robbins: 342 (2)
Century 21: 25 (1)
Cisco: 144 (4)
Citibank: 760 (7)
Coca Cola: 100 (2)
Costco: 1010 (4)
Sorta broadens one’s perspective on who the constituency of foreign companies really is. If the K-subsidiary is making profit in Korea and exporting those profits, that leans the constituency more toward the foreign company. If the subsidiary isn’t generating much profit, the constituency is limited to the Korean workers and their families. But in terms of AMCHAM activities, publications, parties, committee meetings, etc, if the 2004 numbers reflect the 2009 numbers, you have to ask, where are the foreigners to even attend those parties, read the reports and go to the meetings? It’s a pretty small group.
@ Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog)
IMO, The Chamber would do well to bring in someone more of Mr. Breen’s caliber and background and network, apart from entrepreneurship.
Not any more.
I do not disagree, as I have nothing negative to say about Mike Breen other than he is not an American. Which is not in and of itself bad, you see, but this is supposed to be the American Chamber of Commerce… Anyway, apart from what I’ve read here there’s no clear information that Mike Breen or Steve McKinney is interested in the position. I’ve heard Amy Jackson’s name bandied about for quite a while as “Tami’s choice”. Again, I’m sure Amy Jackson is and would be quite capable, but I’m of the opinion that more of the same is not what AMCHAM needs now. Disband the prom committee and make the organization a business organization again, open to the needs of all its members and a resource to help new American businesses — large and small — enter and get started in the market.
I’m with BC on this one. McKinney has done a lot of good for the chamber in the past and he can take it a new direction. If he gets the nod I’ll rejoin, and I suspect other leaders of small businesses will reconsider, as I know the organization will change from being all about the fat cats. We’ll actually get something for our dues for a change. Amy Jackson may be good for the FTA, but that’s really up to a Democratic Congress and administration nowadays. According to her bio, she’s got zero business experience, which to me is a big negative.
I highly doubt Breen is running. The chairmanship of the BCCK is opening soon, though.
“Obviously I am not an English teacher either.”
but you are english no?
Roh Moo Hyun Halabojee AMCHAM TaeTongRyong Salanghamnida!
Now I’ve found out: Steve has in fact expressed interest in this position. He’d definitely have my vote, if the crooked AMCHAM would allow me to have a vote. The “grandfathering” of some long-serving American lawyers at Korean firms, while excluding the votes of other long-serving American lawyers at Korean firms (yours truly and others), is a royal crock. Being rid of Tami Overby gives the membership a chance to re-evaluate that “policy”.
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