Ana María Fernández Haar Chairman-elect Of The World Trade Center Miami.

The World Trade Center Miami announced that Miami businesswoman Ana María Fernández Haar, CEO of the IAC Group, Inc., has been voted Chairman-elect of the organization. She will serve in that capacity for the next year, and will assume the Chairmanship of the World Trade Center Miami on June 1, 2002, succeeding Chairman Richard Roffman, CEO of The Americas Publishing Group.

Highly respected in international trade and finance circles, Ms. Fernández Haar’s involvement in this sector dates to 1977, when as Vice President of Jefferson National Bank, she chaired the first International Committee of the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce. Subsequently, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige appointed Ms. Fernández Haar to the Florida Export Council, where she served until June 1987. She has been active in the World Trade Center Miami for twenty years, as a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

“It is an exciting opportunity for the World Trade Center Miami to have Ana María take the leadership role, utilizing her expertise and years of experience in Latin American marketing to expand affiliations and establish new linkages” noted Roffman, the current Chairman.

World Trade Center President, Charlotte Gallogly, added, “Ana María has always had a global vision. When she founded IAC in 1978 she said ‘there is no such thing as a local economy anymore- the rest of the country will soon discover what South Florida already knows.’ We have an ambitious agenda for the years ahead, and are delighted to be able to count on this proven, results-driven leader,” concluded Gallogly. This is only the second time in its thirty-year history that a woman will lead the organization.

Ms. Fernández Haar is past president of the national Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies and a Vice-Chairman of New America Alliance, an American Latino Business Initiative. She is a member of the boards of directors of E-Com Ventures (Perfumania), SCORE, the Japan Society and CAMACOL (Latin Chamber of Commerce), and past president of the Cuban Woman’s Club and the Hispanic Heritage Council.

Ms. Fernández Haar has received numerous professional recognitions including Inc. Magazine’s Minority Entrepreneur of the Year for Florida in 1992, The Circle of Excellence Award of the Hispanic Business Roundtable, and the American Red Cross Spectrum Award for Entrepreneurship, both in 2000.