THE QUIET QUEST – Professionals Seeking Citizenship

PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART SERIES

Mike Reagen
Citizen Member Editorial Board

Note: Many of our well-educated foreign-born citizens who have studied and migrated here have powerful, varied stories and strong opinions.

We asked several who are Collier County citizens to share both.

We asked them why and how they came here and what advice they would give to others, including our policy makers.

Here goes:

HONG LONG
Born: Laos. Today, VP, Position Logic, a division of
RacoWireless. Named twice in INC Magazine’s list
of top 500 entrepreneurs in the USA. RacoWireless
has 147 employees, 40 in its Position Logic
Division Office in Naples and 40 in its Dominican
Republic Office. 60 percent of these professionals
are foreign-born computer code experts.

NICOLA SMYTHE
Born in Zimbabwe. Today, Massage Therapist,
NCH’s Whitaker Wellness Center.

10,000 members during season belong to NCH’s
Wellness Centers where they enjoy in a variety of
services including 87 specially programs.

EKKEHARD GRAMPP
Born: Formerly East Germany. Today, retired
Business counselor (consultant) and former
Chairman, SCORE Naples, which covers Collier
County and Bonita Springs. This SCORE Chapter
has been consistently ranked among the 10 best
out of 350 in the USA because among others they
conduct (counsel) an average of 150 counseling sessions (business
clients) each month.

CATHY CHRISTOPHER
Born: Jamaica. Today, Director of Sales & Marketing, Inn on Fifth,
Naples. The Inn comprises two buildings with a total of 188,000
square feet. In 2013, 56,000 adults plus 8,000 children from across
the USA and overseas stayed at the hotel.

LUIS BERNAL
Born: Colombia. Today, international development consultant
specialized in program monitoring and evaluation. His clients
include the Inter-American Development Bank, the United
States Agency for International Development USAID, as well
as foreign governments, and non-profit organizations. From his
office in Naples he works in projects through Latin America and
The Caribbean. His community involvement includes business,
economic development, government, and public education. He
founded the Council of Hispanic Business Professionals CHBP, and
recently ran for the School Board of Collier County.

REY PEZESHKAN
Born: Iran. Today, Rey Pezeshkan is Founder,
President and CEO of PK Studios, Inc., a planning
, architecture, interior design, graphics, construction
services firm in Naples, FL whose team of planners,
and architects have designed over 5,000 dwelling
units throughout Southwest Florida from high
rise construction, to multi-family and single-family planned
communities.

ROWAN SAMUEL
Born: Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Today, with John
R. Wood Properties focusing on sales of Naples
luxury property including waterfront, beachfront
and golf course communities. A serial entrepreneur
and successful businessman, Rowan Samuel used
his 20 years as an advertising agency executive and
direct marketer to Co-Found the Naples International Film Festival,
one of Florida’s most vibrant and exciting new film festivals. “As a
first generation immigrant, my family lost everything as part of a
civil war in Zimbabwe. It took three years for us to get our Visas to
come to the US (legally). We were lucky in that we had family here
in the US who lobbied for us, helped with the paperwork and then
housed us until my parents got jobs with enough income to enable
us to move into our first home,” Samuel says.

AYSEGUL TIMUR
Born: Turkey. Today, Aysegul Timur is a
Professor and Chair of Business Administration
and Public Administration Programs at the
Johnson School of Business, Hodges University.
A health economist specializing in statistics for
strategic planning, among other areas of expertise,
she has led several regional comparative analyses on best economic
development practices.

Next Month: Fleeing for Freedom: Get Prepared and Get Serious