Tradeology, the ITA Blog

Adam S. Wilczewski is the Chief of Staff for the International Trade Administration and the former Director of the Strategic Partnership Program in the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service. 

It is with great pride that I serve as Chief of Staff for the International Trade Administration (ITA).  I would like to thank Under Secretary Sanchez for this opportunity and his continued leadership at ITA.  It was an honor to serve as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for nearly two years and I am very much looking forward to the challenges ahead.

With that said, I would also like to thank the current and former members of the Strategic Partnership Program team:  Robert McEntire (Sr. Program Manager and Acting Deputy Director), Stephanie Smedile (Program Manager), James Golsen (Commercial Officer), Janice Corbett (Commercial Officer), Rebecca Balogh (Commercial Officer), Brandon Woods (former Presidential Management fellow), and our bevy of interns including Rob Maxim, Olivia Woods, Alicia Israel, Joey Hanna, Aaron Hernandez, Meghan LePage, and Jesse Pham.

During my tenure as Director, the team achieved some great accomplishments in broadening and deepening the U.S. exporter base.  The marketing efforts of the corporate and association partners provided a true value add to the American public, and I cannot thank them enough.

Strategic Partnership Program

September 2009 – April 2011

The Strategic Partnership Program coordinates public/private partnerships between leading U.S. companies and associations with the U.S. Commercial Service.  The primary focus of the partnership is to maximize the subject matter expertise and marketing savvy of the partners, and along with the Commercial Service to educate and proactively encourage firms to export or expand the number of countries to which they currently export.

From September 2009 through May 2011, the Strategic Partnership Program – with our partners – made approximately 20 million touches to U.S. businesses, trade associations, and executives through various marketing efforts, such as messaging placement in partner publications, internal newsletters, and multi-media outreach efforts.  In addition, the program established the TradeAlerts newsletter, which is sent to more than 700 associations bi-monthly.

The focus of the partnership program has evolved from primarily supporting export educational programs and events, to a strategic effort to support the National Export Initiative (NEI) through the innovative New Market Exporter Initiative (NMEI).  The NMEI collaborated with partners FedEx, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and the National Association of Manufacturers, helping to train more than 3,500 of their international account executives on the NEI and federal trade programs of the International Trade Administration plus other agencies.  These strategic marketing partners reached out to more than 25,000 of their client companies.  Plans have been created in conjunction with the partners to touch thousands of additional companies in FY11.  As a result of these efforts, over 1,000 companies have registered on export.gov requesting CS assistance in entering a new market.

Strategic Partnership Program partners include:  17 companies and 2 trade associations

• AON Corporation*
• Baker & McKenzie
• City National Bank
• Comerica Incorporated
• Federal Express Corporation
• FITA Online
• Lufthansa
• Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
• PNC Bank*
• REED Exhibitions
• TD Bank
• ThinkGlobal Inc.
• Trade Center Management Associates
• TÜVRheinland
• United Parcel Service, Inc.
• United States Postal Service
• Zions First National Bank
• National Association of Manufacturers
• United States Council for International Business

*No longer a partner of the Commercial Service, but was during a portion of the time covered by this report.

Thank you, once again, to the Strategic Partnership Program team members, the talented U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service international trade specialists and commercial officers who helped execute our programming, and our corporate and association partners for their support and commitment.