ROTARY CLUB OF DEERFIELD BEACH INC
DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA

Ice cream factories in Syria are helping by freezing the ice packs that health workers use to keep the polio vaccine cold during immunization campaigns. I work at a commercial law firm, but I do more mediation than litigation. My law firm advocates for the use of alternative dispute resolution, and in Uganda, it’s also a requirement by law that parties undergo mediation. There are many cases where there’s lots of screaming. Part of the job is that you have to let both parties make some noise at first. There’s also a lot of suspicion based on tribal affiliation, so we have to reassure the parties right at the beginning that we are getting nothing from this process – no land, no money. We just want to help them come to a solution. I raise capital to help businesses grow. I help evaluate potential deals and find investors to fund them. I work on mergers and acquisitions. And I provide long-term financial advice to municipal institutions, like the local airport and civic center and the university system. I get the opportunity to learn something new every day. A couple of years ago, we provided financial advice to a waste-to-energy facility in the Pacific Northwest. I didn’t have any experience in that sector, but I had to learn enough to help them design a feasibility model for a new facility. The goal was to take food waste from restaurants that would otherwise go into a landfill and convert that waste into methane gas that could run an engine, or get cleaned up and fed into a pipeline. The byproduct of this process was nitrogen-rich fertilizer. A couple of years ago, I raised money for an Arizona tech company that found a way to print semiconductors that generated light. We think of lighting as an old technology, but this firm had figured out a way to literally print lights. That was my first big deal, and we helped them raise more than $11 million. I also recently helped a client sell a galvanized metal facility. I’d never even been in a galvanized metal facility! So I had this crash course. But that’s the way I like it, because I get bored very easily. It probably helps that I work in Birmingham. If I was at a big firm in New York City, I might be stuck crunching numbers, rather than getting to pitch clients. Plus, the Birmingham scene seems to be growing for startups. Some of what I do is trying to figure out what the next wave of activity is going to be in the culture. Recently, I’ve started looking into the educational tech sector, and I’m now talking with a client who wants to use technology to provide affordable education. It’s incredibly exciting for me when I can see from my research that there’s a genuine need in the market, and then a client comes walking through the door who fills that need. I also work with local businesses to attract investors. People don’t always realize that the Russians left Lithuania in 1991, and we have been an independent country for 27 years. In that time, we have joined NATO and become a member of the European Union. One of the things I love the most about Lithuanian culture is that we have great festivities. Lithuanians especially love to dance. Ever since I came here, I’ve been doing traditional Lithuanian dance. You can’t believe how many people do this! We have a national expo where there are thousands of dancers, and thousands more watching. It’s a huge party. And for me, it’s like public diplomacy, because you see how you can do great things when you bring so many people together. : Nichole Haynes, 23, a member of the Rotaract Club of Georgetown Central, Guyana, and an economist at Guyana’s Ministry of Business When I started this job, I was 21. The first project I undertook was to make it easier to do business in Guyana. That has resulted in several collaborations and support from external bodies such as the World Bank. I’m very proud of that. Nichole Haynes: “I appreciate that I get to be so directly involved in transforming our economy and in making the lives of the citizens of Guyana easier.”   Guyana is located in South America. We are not a country in Africa, as some think. We are a very small country – the population is approximately 740,000 – and we are largely agricultural. We have recently been classed as upper middle income. Guyana has discovered oil, and the government hopes to use the returns for infrastructure and education. So we are excited about that. It means that there is a lot of attention on the department in which I work. My work is largely structured around policy development. I work directly with the minister of business to assess critical factors influencing the business environment. One project that we’ve been working on is improving transparency and access to information within Guyana – information on how to start your business, how to register the forms you need, how to access your forms online. It’s a small step, but it’s a big step for Guyana. We are moving into the digital age. Access to electricity is one of the biggest constraints to doing business in Guyana. We want to go green, so we are about to pursue hydropower and solar. Oil is another opportunity for us to reduce our energy costs. Access to credit is another issue, especially for small businesses. We have introduced a credit bureau, and at the Ministry of Business, we are leading the development of a secure system to allow assets such as cattle to be used as collateral for borrowing. In addition, we  provide grants to small businesses that are in keeping with the intentions of Guyana going green and supporting a sustainable economy. I appreciate that I get to be so directly involved in transforming our economy and in making the lives of the citizens of Guyana easier. Anyone in the public sector needs to put their country first. You must be invested in making your country better, especially if you are directly involved in policymaking. Guyana has solutions. It has natural resources; it has talented people. I want to play a part in organizing those players and those resources for Guyana’s real development – that’s why I do this. You see the potential, and you want to help.