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About the Embassy
Ambassador
Business Outreach
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Special Events
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On April 7th, 2008, Ambassador Wagner was invited to attend the Groundbreaking ceremony for the International Data and Communications Center of LuxConnect, in the presence of Minister Jean-Louis Schiltz (Media & Communications) and representatives of the technology and e-commerce companies, many of which American, that are operating in Luxembourg. The primary objective of LuxConnect, a private company launched in conjunction with the ministry, is to improve the international connectivity of Luxembourg by implementing a high bandwidth network between the Grand-Duchy and the primary internet access centers located in other countries. In his remarks, the Minister underlined the emergence of Luxembourg as a center of competence and excellence in new technologies, widely recognized in the international IT arena
Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to Deloitte Luxembourg on March 10th,2008. Deloitte, one of the world’s leading “Big Four” audit and accounting firms, originated over a century ago in the United States of America, first in New York, followed by Minneapolis and Chicago. The firm started under the name Touche Niven and developed through partnerships and mergers leading to several name changes, most notably Touche Ross and Deloitte & Touche. In 1995, the partners voted to create Deloitte Consulting to serve multinational corporate clients. In Luxembourg, Deloitte employs over 900 people of 34 nationalities and services large enterprises in both industry (ArcelorMittal) and the financial sector (State Street Bank; Brown Brothers Harriman; Citi; and JPMorgan Bank).
Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to Cisco Systems Luxembourg in Kirchberg on February 13th. Cisco, headquartered in San Jose, California, is one of the world’s largest technology companies, enabling people to make powerful connections – whether in business, education, philanthropy or creativity. Cisco hardware, software and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible by providing easy access to information anywhere at any time, as well as inter-connectivity. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University. Cisco’s Luxembourg operation opened in 1997 to support sales and engineering work and has experienced significant growth in revenues thanks to a focus on emerging technologies and sustained investment.
On December 3, 2007, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to Apple iTunes in Luxembourg, the company’s European headquarters opened in summer 2004. The first European iTunes online stores were launched in the U.K., France and Germany, with others following a year later and expanding to Australia and New Zealand. Apple iTunes, not just a “music store”, sells “content”, which varies by country and will soon include new DVD movie releases (recent press). A wholly-owned subsidiary of Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, California, the pioneer start-up that reinvented the personal computer in the 1980’s with the Macintosh or “Mac”, iTunes represents 17 country stores distributing and selling music, digital downloads of sound recordings and pre-paid music vouchers which entitle the end-user of the card (gift recipient or otherwise) to purchase and download music from the Store.
On November 28th, 2007, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the offices of Brink's Security in Luxembourg-Hamm, including the operations monitoring center. Founded in 1859 by Perry Brink in Chicago, Illinois, Brink's, a world leader in security services, is currently headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and provides global security and cash management, as well as logistics services, including: security in public buildings and airports; armored car transport; ATM (automatic teller machine) security; currency and coin processing; transportation, storage and destruction of sensitive information, and home security alarm monitoring. Brink's has had a corporate presence in Luxembourg since 1972 and is a key player in the security market with top customers now including the large banks (Dexia; EIB; Fortis), retailers (Cactus) and corporations (Cargolux, Clearstream), as well as the government of Luxembourg
On November 20th, Ambassador Wagner, accompanied by her husband Mr. Ray Wagner and U.S. Embassy Regional Security Officer Jeffrey Rusinek, made a courtesy outreach visit to the operations of Luxembourg Air Rescue, the non-profit emergency service organization, at their base at Findel Airport. Established in 1988 by Rene Closter, LAR provides helicopter, jet and outpatient rescue services to over 160,000 members 365 days a year, anywhere in the world. In a medical emergency, LAR will repatriate members back to Luxembourg (or their home location in the greater region) as soon as possible with an ambulance, commercial flight, air-ambulance or helicopter, where feasible.  |
Included in the annual membership fee are total repatriation costs with services provided by a full-time staff of 60 physicians, nurses and pilots. LAR operates from three bases in Luxembourg: Cessange, Findel and Ettelbrueck and is the first helicopter and air-ambulance service in the world to have been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 quality label. LAR, which operates under the "haut patronage" of the Grand-Duke of Luxembourg, recently showed a documentary film on television "Mission Pakistan", showing their humanitarian efforts in 2005 and 2006 to help Pakistan recover after several earthquakes in the Kashmir region."
On September 20th, Ambassador Wagner visited the new offices of Citigroup in Bertrange – soon to be re-branded worldwide as “Citi”. Citigroup, founded in New York in 1812, is one of the oldest and most prominent banking and financial services firms in the world with some 200 million customer accounts in over 100 countries. The bank entered the Luxembourg market in 1970 and is now one of the top five fund administration service providers with global transaction services and global relationship banking.
On September 13th 2007, Ambassador Wagner visited the worksite the operations of Soutirages Luxembourgeois, part of the Coca-Cola Enterprises (bottling) company. Celebrating its 70th anniversary of operations in Luxembourg this year, Soutirages is responsible for the sales and distribution of a variety of brands of soft drinks, including Coke (classic), Diet Coke, Zero and Fanta. Soutirages also distributes the Luxembourg bottled spring water, Rosport. The 121 year-old parent company icon Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s largest non-alcoholic beverage company, with over 400 different soft drinks, juices, teas, coffees, waters, sports and energy drink brands.
On September 12th, Ambassador Wagner visited the offices of Sun Microsystems Luxembourg, launched in 1994 and now employing over 200, including both staff and contractors. Sun, founded in California’s Silicon Valley in 1982, is the world’s leading provider of network computing infrastructure solutions, including computer systems, software, storage and computer services. Sun is best known for its “Java” platform, which the company created to integrate related platforms allowing the development and running of programs written in the Java programming language. More recently, Sun has been a leading proponent of open-source software (programming code available to the public via a shared folder), with products such as OpenOffice. Sun announced a partnership with Google to distribute Sun’s StarOffice software (competitor to Microsoft Office) and was named “the greenest computer company” in the world by Fortune Magazine this year.
Ambassador Wagner visited the public research center Henri Tudor CRTE (Centre de Recherche des Technologies de l’Environnement) site in Esch-sur-Alzette on July 17, 2007. The CRTE, a joint venture of the Henri Tudor research center and the Ministry of Environment, was established to provide information, promote best practices and carry out applied research projects for private industry, in particular small- to medium-sized businesses. The CRTE specializes in the areas of: cleaner production; renewable energies; water management; and sustainable construction.
On June 18th, Ambassador Wagner visited the brand new offices of PayPal Europe, part of eBay, the widely-used internet auction website. PayPal, the world leader in internet online payments, announced in May that the company was granted a banking license for the EU and would move its European headquarters to Luxembourg. Under the new charter, PayPal will be able to continue its fast-paced European expansion by offering its services to more online merchants across Europe. Founded in 1998, PayPal, acquired by eBay in 2002, enables any individual or business with an e-mail address to securely and quickly send and receive payments online. PayPal’s service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world’s most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution.
Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the offices of PK AirFinance on June 12th. The company is the commercial aviation financing division of GE Capital, which acquired it in 2000. GE Capital is the financial services arm of the General Electric company. Started in 1979 as PK Finans in Luxembourg by PKbanken (a Swedish concern), the company was sold to the French bank Credit Lyonnais and renamed PK AirFinance in 1988. It is a leading provider and arranger of asset-based loans secured by commercial jet aircraft; the portfolio by aircraft type is dominated by Boeing
Ambassador Wagner visits Franklin Templeton Investments On March 21st, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to Franklin Templeton Investments in Luxembourg-city. Established in 1991, the Luxembourg office promotes and distributes Luxembourg mutual funds globally and provides administrative services for Franklin Templeton funds sold in Luxembourg. One of the original and oldest U.S. mutual fund companies (60 years), Franklin Templeton, headquartered in San Mateo, California, is recognized worldwide as an industry leader and pioneer in asset management.
 | | From left to right: Romain Lanners, Adviser, European Affairs, FEDIL; Steven Kiefer, Managing Director, Delphi; Lucien Schummer, Vice President, Alliances and Strategy, Cargolux Airlines International; Rene Winkin, Secretary General, FEDIL; Robert Dennewald, Chairman, FEDIL; The Ambassador; Nicolas Soisson, Director, FEDIL; Alain Kohnen, Plant Manager and Patricia Horreaux, Financial Controller, Avery Dennison. |
Ambassador visits FEDIL On February 14th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to FEDIL, the Luxembourg Industrial Employers’ Federation, at their headquarters in the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce building. Founded in 1918, FEDIL is the main professional association of the industrial, construction and industrial services sectors and counts nearly 500 member companies, of which many are American with Luxembourg subsidiaries. FEDIL monitors economic, social and industrial issues affecting the Luxembourg economy and advocates on behalf of its member companies’ interests. Within FEDIL, companies belonging to the same sector may form a professional section, such as the Automotive Suppliers, including Delphi, the U.S. company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan with a large technical center in Bascharage, and the Petroleum Industry Association. FEDIL also opened a representative office in Brussels, in order to interact more closely with the EU decision-making institutions on issues impacting Luxembourg’s private sector
 | | From left to right: Henri Hackenberg, Senior Vice President and co-Managing Director; The Ambassador; Geoffrey Cook, Managing Director; Joseph Hendry, Vice President, Head of Relationship Management |
Ambassador visits Brown Brothers Harriman On February 13th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to Brown Brothers Harriman in their new offices in the “Dome” complex overlooking the Petrusse valley. BBH, the oldest and largest partnership bank in the U.S.A., is a leading provider of global custody, foreign exchange, private equity, merger and acquisitions services, investment management for individuals and institutions, personal trust and estate administration, and securities brokerage. One of the oldest private banks in the world, BBH’s history goes back 200 years to the early 19th century and an importer of Irish linen, Alexander Brown, who had emigrated from Belfast, Ireland to Baltimore, Maryland. In 1931, Brown Brothers merged with E.H. Harriman, of Pacific National Railroad fame, to become Brown Brothers Harriman. BBH Luxembourg, launched in 1989, is enjoying significant growth with a focus on investor services and fund administration and employs 250 staff members
 | | From left to right: John Pritchard, Vice President and General Manager, GE FANUC Automation Solutions Europe; The Ambassador; Dr. Kersten Uhlig, Vice President and General Manager, Technology. The Ambassador; Nigel Ramsden, Robotics plant manager |
Ambassador Visists GE FANUC Ambassador Wagner visited the headquarters and robotics plant of GE FANUC in Echternach on February 7th. GE FANUC, a joint venture between The General Electric Company and FANUC of Japan, was formed in 1987 thanks to a partnership agreement forged by GE’s legendary former CEO, Jack Welch. Headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, GE FANUC has global operations serving customers in the Americas, Europe and Asia in the fields of control and automation technologies for “intelligent production management solutions”. The company is composed of two partner divisions, GE FANUC Automation Solutions and GE FANUC Automation CNC, both jointly owned by GE and FANUC
 | | From left to right: Fernand Rippinger, CEO, CFL-Cargo; The Ambassador; Francois Jaeger, Director, CFL |
Ambassador Visits CFL Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit on February 6th to CFL, Luxembourg’s National Railroad Company, to both the headquarters building as well as the Control Command Center for the central train station in Luxembourg-city. CFL operates both passenger and freight trains, as well as buses, throughout the Grand-Duchy. A total of 6 million passenger rail kilometers were covered by CFL last year to transport 14 million passengers, as well as 12 million tons of cargo. Luxembourg and the Grande Region are now looking forward to the start of the “TGV-Est” (“train a grande vitesse” or high-speed line), scheduled for June 10th, which will reduce travel time to Paris to just over 2 hours. In the freight area, a major initiative was launched in January: CFL-Cargo, a joint venture between CFL and Arcelor Mittal to transport heavy cargo nationally and internationally by rail
 | | From left to right: Juergen Weimann, Assistant General Counsel International, EMC Corporation, and General Manager, EMC Benelux; Thierry Vanbever, Business Manager, EMC Luxembourg; The Ambassador; William Teuber, Jr., Vice Chairman, EMC Corporation |
Ambassador Visits EMC On February 5th, In honor of the visit to Luxembourg by Mr. William Teuber, Vice Chairman of EMC Corporation, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the EMC Luxembourg offices in Hamm. EMC Corporation is the world leader in products, services, systems, software and solutions for information management and storage. EMC provides information technology infrastructure to a full range of companies, from start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations, spanning a wide spectrum of industries, from financial services to manufacturers to telecommunications, healthcare, education and transportation. EMC’s Luxembourg office opened in 1999 as part of EMC Benelux and is the market leader in the storage field
 | | From left to right: Tom Boughter, Political/Economic/Commercial Section Chief, U.S. Embassy; Patrick McCartan, International Funding Manager; The Ambassador; Fred Mason, Managing Director and Director, Product Source Planning, Caterpillar Inc.; Rodrick Skewes, Production Location Project Manager. |
Ambassador visits CaterpillarOn January 31st, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the Luxembourg offices of Caterpillar, an American “icon” brand and worldwide leading manufacturer of industrial machinery and engines for the construction, mining, forestry and energy industries. Founded in 1925 to service the farming sector with tractors, Caterpillar, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, has grown exponentially, with a doubling of sales and revenue over the past three years. Caterpillar employs 95,000 staff in 40 countries and distributes through a global dealer network represented in 200 countries. As a good corporate citizen concerned about environmental issues, the company is pursuing a policy of sustainable development as a driver of growth and innovation. Caterpillar Luxembourg, opened in 2005, is focused on international funding management and product source planning
 | | From left to right: Micael Weber, Business Development Manager - Dell Luxembourg; Emmanuel Mouquet, General Manager Dell Belgium & Luxembourg; The Ambassador |
Ambassador visits new offices of Dell Luxembourg On January 17th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy visit to the new offices of Dell Luxembourg in the West Side Village Office Park in Capellen and delivered congratulatory remarks at the inauguration event for Dell’s key clients. Dell Luxembourg has grown significantly over just two short years by evolving from a hardware-based company to a “solutions-based” company servicing the Large Business segment with companies over 200 employees, as well as government entities such as Findel Airport and the University of Luxembourg. Founded by the pioneering American entrepreneur Michael Dell in Austin, Texas in 1984, Dell is one of the greatest success stories in the IT industry, based on a direct sales business model for high-performance and cutting-edge information technology products
 | | from left to right: Raphael Vogrig, Managing Director; The Ambassador; Jean-Philippe Hildebrand, North America Business Manager |
Ambassador Wagner Visits LuxScan Technologies On December 20th, Ambassador Wagner visited the offices and manufacturing site of LuxScan Technologies, a Luxembourg company launched in 1998 to design and manufacture industrial scanners for automatic quality control for the wood industry. LuxScan owns a subsidiary company in Troutman, North Carolina, U.S.A., which contributes over half of total yearly annual revenues. LuxScan has received recognition and support from the Luxembourg government for their cutting-edge research and development activities.
 | | In front of art by Luxembourg artist Doris Drescher, from left to right: Geraldine Knudson, City Manager; The Ambassador; Sandy Olinger, Assistant to Ms. Knudson |
Ambassador Wagner visits Luxembourg City Tourist Office and Luxembourg City ManagerOn December 13th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the Luxembourg City Manager’s office and the new Luxembourg City Tourist Office. The City Manager’s office is a municipal service under the jurisdiction of the Bourgmestre of the City of Luxembourg and is currently working on plans to optimize the commercial offering in the city center to reflect the image of Luxembourg as “a European capital with human dimensions and the smallest cosmopolitan metropolis in the world. The Tourist Office is a not-for-profit association furthering the development of tourism in Luxembourg and serving over 200,000 customers of many different nationalities each year. The beautiful new LCTO location was inaugurated on Place Guillaume on December 5th.”
 | | From left to right: Elmar Heggen, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Center, RTL Group; The Ambassador; Gerhard Zeiler, Chief Executive Officer, RTL Group |
Ambassador Visits RTL Group On December 5th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to RTL Group and Broadcasting Center Europe in Kirchberg. RTL, or Radio Television Luxembourg, a household name in Luxembourg and across Western Europe with a rich heritage of pioneering both radio (started in 1924) and television (started in 1955) broadcasting, is now majority-owned by Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate. RTL Group is the leading European entertainment network, with interests in 39 television channels and 33 radio stations in 11 countries, and growing. RTL supplies programming, imports American content – both television series and made-for-TV movies, as well as feature films - and also produces original content via its production division, Fremantle Media, one of the largest international producers outside the U.S.A. BCE, founded in 2000 by merging different technical entities of RTL Group, is a state-of-the-art European player in technical services, supplying to television, radio, telecommunications and IT
 | | From left to right: Galen Hellwarth, Director of Finance and Treasury; Simon Gathercole, Director of IT; Stephen Jenkins, Managing Director; The Ambassador; David Dodsworth, Director of HR; Stephen Parkes (Director of Sales and Marketing); James Riley, Director of Operations; Carmen Laun, Senior Counsel and Compliance Officer.” |
Ambassador Wagner visits John Deere Bank On November 30th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to John Deere Bank in the offices at Cloche d’Or. John Deere, an American icon and household name, is the world’s leading manufacturer of agricultural (farming) equipment. Founded in 1837 as a one-man blacksmith shop by Mr. John Deere, the company was incorporated as Deere & Company and achieved success by pioneering a revolutionary plow. John Deere Bank, the credit lending division of the company, provides sales and customer service support by offering financial packages to individual credit applications for the purchases of Deere agricultural and forestry equipment
 | From left to right: Didier Lang, Finance Manager; Manfred Loewe, Site Manager; The Ambassador; Uwe Braun, Business Manager." |
Ambassador Wagner visits Moog Luxembourg On November 15th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the offices and plant operations of Moog Luxembourg, in the Zone d’Activites Economiques Krakelshaff in Bettembourg. Moog Luxembourg is a subsidiary of the U.S. company Moog, Inc., headquartered in East Aurora, New York, a worldwide manufacturer of precision control components and systems. These high-performance products control commercial and military aircraft, satellites and space vehicles, missiles and automated industrial machinery. In 1998, Moog launched a joint venture with Hydrolux, a subsidiary of the Luxembourgish Paul Wurth Company, itself part of the Arcelor Mittal steel conglomerate. This venture established Moog as the exclusive North American distributor of Hydrolux’s hydraulic manifolds, the heart of some large industrial systems. Moog-Hydrolux is thus contributing to the strength of the bilateral trade partnership between Luxembourg and the United States of America.
 | | From left to right: Adrien Ney, CEO, Luxair; The Ambassador; Fernand Besch, Handling Manager; Fernand Brisbois, Vice President |
Ambassador Wagner visits LUXAIR
On November 9th, Ambassador Wagner made a courtesy outreach visit to the Cargo Handling Center at Findel Airport courtesy of Luxair. Luxembourg Findel Airport is the fifth busiest cargo airport in Europe, behind Paris CDG, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London. Currently, 800,000 tons of cargo are being handled, which is projected to increase to 1 million tons with the extension of the cargo center by end of 2007. Cargolux, the leading cargo airline in Europe with its hub at Findel, is the Cargo Center’s largest customer.”
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