Green Build Road Show

Speakers

The following speakers will provide market briefings and outline export opportunities for U.S. companies.

Dorothy L. Lutter

Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy – London, United Kingdom

Dorothy Lutter began her assignment as Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the United States Embassy in London in August 2007.

Previous to her assignment to the United Kingdom, she served in a similar capacity at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 2003 to 2007. Prior to Russia, she served in Washington, D.C. as the U.S. Commercial Service’s Regional Director for the Western Hemisphere.

As a career Senior Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Ms. Lutter has had previous diplomatic postings in Colombia, Spain, India, Malaysia and Nigeria, and has undertaken special assignments in South Africa and Israel. She has also worked in various capacities in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s offices in Boston and Washington, D.C.

As a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, Ms. Lutter held the position of District Development Officer for the Southern District of Botswana. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Daniel E. Harris

Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy - Paris, France

As Senior Commercial Officer, Daniel Harris serves as the chief of the Commercial Section and the senior representative of the U.S. Department of Commerce in the U.S. Mission to France. From December 2005 until August 2008, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Operations in the U.S. Commercial Service, Washington, D.C. In this capacity, Mr. Harris supervised the Commerce Department’s Foreign Service operations in 80 countries around the world, with responsibility for budgets, personnel and programs.

After a four-year tour as U.S. Consul General in Düsseldorf, Germany (1999-2003), Mr. Harris returned to Washington as Senior Advisor for Trade Development at the National Association of Manufacturers. In this capacity, he developed innovative programs to assist small and medium-sized manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace. In July 2004, he became Regional Director for Africa, Near East and South Asia – a complex region with U.S. Commercial Service posts in 15 countries. As Regional Director, Mr. Harris served on the management team for the Office of International Operations.

A member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Counselor, Mr. Harris was commissioned into the Foreign Service in 1984. He was first posted as Commercial Attaché to the American Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. From 1987-1990, he served in the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., then as Commercial Attaché in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1990 to 1992. Two tours of duty as Senior Commercial Officer followed from 1992 to 1995 in Prague, Czech Republic, and from 1995 to 1999 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In the twelve years prior to joining the U.S. Department of Commerce, Mr. Harris held various positions in business with South Western Bell Telephone, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and Pall Corporation.

Mr. Harris was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1948. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in history from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, during which time he spent a year abroad at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. After completion of the B.A., Mr. Harris won a fellowship from the Rotary International Foundation to study at the Université de Caen, France (1971-1972). He pursued additional studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium (1973-1974) where he earned a Certificate in Advanced European Studies. He began his international career at Deutsche ICI in Frankfurt, Germany (1974-1976).

He speaks German, French and Spanish in addition to English.

George F. Ruffner

Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy – Berlin, Germany

Mr. Ruffner assumed his duties as the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs in Germany on September 18, 2006. Prior to his assignment in Berlin, he served at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. As the Senior Commercial Officer in Singapore from 2002-2006, he played a key role in promoting the U.S./Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which was the first U.S. free trade agreement in Asia.

Mr. Ruffner's career with the U.S. Department of Commerce began when he was selected for the U.S. Government's Management Intern Program. After four years with the Department's Office of International Marketing, he completed Spanish language training and was assigned to Mexico City where he served as the Trade Promotion Officer at the U.S. Trade Center. When the U.S. Commercial Service was formed in 1980, he was one of only fifty officers selected for this elite corps of trade promotion professionals.

In 1982, Mr. Ruffner transferred to Santiago, Chile, where he served as the Commercial Attaché until 1984, when he moved to the Netherlands to assume the position of Principal Commercial Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam. After a five-year stint in Holland, he became the Senior Commercial Officer at the American Embassy in Singapore in 1989. Mr. Ruffner returned to Washington, D.C. in 1993 for Italian training in preparation for his assignment to Italy, where he served as the Principal Commercial Officer in Milan from 1994-1999. During this period, he was instrumental in developing and implementing the trade event portion of the Showcase Europe Program. From 1999-2002, he served as the Senior Commercial Officer in Manila, the Philippines, where he developed and implemented two of the U.S. Commercial Service’s leading programs, Show Time and the Platinum Key Service.

Mr. Ruffner received his B.A. in Economics from Hobart College in 1967 and his MBA from Columbia University in 1969. Following two years in the U.S. Army, he returned to Columbia University's School of International Affairs where he received his Master's Degree in International Affairs in 1972. Mr. Ruffner's professional achievement awards include the U.S. Department of Commerce's Gold and Silver Medals. In addition, he received the Lawrence M. Payne Memorial Award in 2005 for his work promoting international trade through cooperative efforts between the public and private sectors.

Thomas E. Moore

Counselor for Commercial Affairs
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy – Rome, Italy

Mr. Moore joined the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1980 as an economist in the Bureau of East-West Trade, responsible for analyzing trade with Eastern Europe and China. In 1982, he joined the effort to secure passage of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBI), and for the next five years worked to promote trade and investment with Caribbean and Central American states. This was followed by a two-year detail as Private Sector Coordinator with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Barbados, and two years as Senior Commercial Officer for the U.S. Commercial Service in the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago, covering the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean.

He continued his career as a commercial officer, covering the oil industry from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and the “Big Emerging Market” of Indonesia from Jakarta. He spent five years as Deputy Senior Commercial Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, helping to manage one of the U.S. Commercial Service's largest and most active export promotion programs. Mr. Moore also served as the Regional Director for Europe, responsible for managing U.S. Commercial Service offices in 30 countries, from Dublin to Vladivostok. Most recently, he was the Deputy Director General for the U.S. Commercial Service in Washington, D.C., the highest-ranking career manager in the agency. In this capacity, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of 2,000 employees in over 250 offices located in 80 countries, as well as numerous trade promotion and advocacy programs.

Currently, Mr. Moore is Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, where he oversees the operations of the U.S. Commercial Service’s three Italian offices in Rome, Milan, and Florence.

Mr. Moore is a graduate of the State Department's Senior Seminar, a nine-month program of leadership and management training for senior-level foreign affairs professionals from throughout the U.S. Government.

He is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, and a graduate of The University of Michigan with a B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in Public Policy Studies and Asian Studies.

Frank G. Carrico

Regional Senior Commercial Officer
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy – Stockholm, Sweden

Frank Carrico is the Regional Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm and supervises U.S. Department of Commerce offices in Sweden and Denmark, and Commerce partner posts at U.S. Embassies in Latvia and Iceland. Most recently, Mr. Carrico and his offices have established a program through the United Nations Climate Summit trade event in Copenhagen for assisting U.S. cleantech companies with sales and partnerships in expanding renewable energy markets in Europe.

Before Sweden, Mr. Carrico served as the Senior Commercial Officer in Iraq, supervising Commerce and Defense Department employees in Baghdad, Erbil (Kurdistan), and Amman, Jordan, where he worked on first-time bilateral commercial ties and assisted with $9 billion in U.S. export sales.

Before Iraq, Mr. Carrico was the Principal Commercial Officer in São Paulo, Brazil, one of Commerce’s largest overseas offices, where he supervised 30 nationals and two officers in offices in Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre. He helped to increase U.S. export successes and client programs substantially during his posting. In his last year, his office accounted for more than $1.5 billion in export successes. Mr. Carrico has good Portuguese language skills and an undergraduate degree in Latin American studies.

Before Brazil, he was the Senior Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine (good Russian language capability) and responsible for regional programs, including the Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) U.S. training and Business Information Services for Newly Independent States (BISNIS) post programs. He quadrupled U.S. export sales and client programs during his posting in Kyiv.

Prior to Kyiv, Mr. Carrico served in Tokyo as Trade Center Director and Commercial Officer at the U.S. Embassy Tokyo (fair Japanese language skills) where he was responsible for supervision of Tokyo trade events and developing new client programs, particularly in the healthcare, information and communications technology, renewable energy, and education markets.

Before Japan, and immediately after German re-unification, Mr. Carrico served as Commercial Officer in Germany for the new U.S. Commercial Service office in Berlin where he helped U.S. companies establish first-time partnerships in the reunified eastern Germany.

Before beginning public service in 1991, Mr. Carrico worked as International Marketing Director for Lansmont Corporation and Cyberware Laboratories, California manufacturers of laser electronics, measurement systems, and bundled software where he developed new foreign markets in medical and industrial design, as well as in domestic markets with Hollywood film studios and the U.S. Air Force. Previously, he worked in Texas as an oil and gas executive with Tesoro Petroleum. He received his MBA from the University of Texas in Austin after three years of military service as a Russian translator.

Sylvia Mohr

Standards Specialist
U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Mission to the European Union

Ms. Mohr is the Standards Specialist for the U.S. Commercial Service at the U.S. Mission to the European Union (EU). In her capacity as Standards Specialist, she provides information to U.S. exporters about EU product certification, in particular CE marking and European standards. She has participated in product certification and standards training sessions and outreach programs.

Ms. Mohr has been with the U.S. Mission to the European Union since 1986. She initially worked for the U.S. Information Agency as an Information Assistant. When the U.S. Department of Commerce opened an office at the U.S. Mission to the EU in 1991, she transferred to the U.S. Commercial Service.

Prior to working for the U.S. Government, Sylvia Mohr held the position of marketing and sales coordinator for EU publications in a Dutch publishing company. She started her career as legal/technical translator for a large German chemicals manufacturer. She has a B.A. in languages and is fluent in Dutch, German, English and French.