BABC Holiday Luncheon

We hope you were able to join us for our Eleventh Annual Holiday Luncheon at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia on December 9th. Over 140 BABC members and friends wore their "Wellington" boots and brought their business cards to welcome our member guest, the CEO of Shire Pharmaceuticals, Matthew Emmens.

Matt's attendance at the luncheon answered two questions: Why Shire selected the greater Philadelphia region and why "Specialty Pharma" as their unique business niche.

We are honored to have Matt as a member of the BABC.

Many thanks to all of our members and guests who braved the snow to attend the luncheon and a special thank you to our sponsors who helped make this event such a great success!

The BABC is Happy to Welcome AMEC as an Ambassador Member

The British Group AMEC is an international project management and services company that designs, delivers and supports client assets for customers worldwide across the public and private sectors. AMEC employs 44,000 people in more than 40 countries, generating annual revenues of around US$8 billion. With US headquarters in Washington DC, AMEC has approximately 3,000 employees operating from 86 offices in 37 states. Engineering News Record Magazine has ranked AMEC as the #1 International Design Firm in the United States.

The company works across the public and private sectors, locally and internationally and in a range of sectors including transport, oil and gas and power as well as generally across industry and commerce.

AMEC designs, delivers and supports infrastructure assets. Specific services include: project management, environmental and technical consultancy, architectural and engineering design, funding and feasibility studies, planning, procurement, construction and multi-technical services, facilities management, maintenance and decommissioning.

AMEC operates a network of 100 Earth & Environmental offices throughout the U.S. and Canada that provide environmental, geotechnical, materials-testing and water resources consulting services to government and private sector clients.

For more information, visit www.amec.com

Global Arena Teaches the BABC a Quizzo Lesson

The group of 40 members and guests of the BABC sat, heads bowed in concentration, waiting expectantly for the next question:

"What is the American equivalent of the British term 'subway' and what is the British equivalent of the American word 'vest' "?

Leaning forward conspiratorially, the teammates murmured the answers to each other in hushed whispers, while casting suspicious glances at competitors' tables. The competition was fierce, the protests were heart-felt and the win triumphant... it was Cross-Cultural Quizzo and this was serious!

Speaking about the aims for this event, co-host Global Arena's Executive Director, Justin Leavenworth, said: "Developing Cross-Cultural Quizzo is a fun and insightful process as it highlights how much we can learn about other cultures and, specifically in this situation, how much Americans can learn about the Brits and vice versa - despite the common assumptions of similarity due to our shared language. At Global Arena we work with clients to bridge the knowledge gap between business cultures and help them work together more effectively. So we believe the success of Cross-Cultural Quizzo will not be just fun but also help bridge two cultures that have so much to offer each other."

Global Arena, a consulting firm headquartered in Philadelphia that specializes in global language and cross-cultural services, co-hosted the event with the BABC on Tuesday November 8th in the recently opened Italian restaurant Gioia Mia at 2025 Sansom St. Using its combination of insight, experience and knowledge, Global Arena has implemented successful global solutions for their clients for more than 20 years, providing Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, law firms, non-profit organizations and many more with language training, translation and interpreting services and cross-cultural business coaching.

Back in Gioia Mia, the final round was drawing to a close: "Which Irish poet once said; 'We have everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language' "? Although cultural differences undoubtedly exist...the mingle of British and American accents, the excited chatter and swapping of business cards, and the requests for more Cross-Cultural Quizzo evenings... suggested that the BABC and Global Arena are casting significant doubt on Oscar Wilde's words.

Tracing Family And Friends In Britain

You've lost the phone number of your best mate from college, you can't remember your cousin's address and you are not sure whether Great-Aunt Margaret is still living. What can you do, short of hiring a private detective? How can information be obtained when you are oceans away from those long lost special people?

Telephone directories used to be far more useful than they are today when more than one-third of UK residents do not have a listed phone number. Surnames and initials only appear in directories, so if the person you happen to be seeking is called P Jones you have a needle in a haystack situation. If you want to give this a try, however, check out this site.

However, if this doesn't work help is at hand if you know where to look and it need not cost you a penny (or dime, peseta, rupee...).

To begin with, one invaluable site listing UK residents is the popular www.192.com claiming to include over 50 million residents. This is based on members of the population who are eligible to vote, so will not include those under 18. Usually the site offers a few free introductory searches but you do have to register. Bear in mind that information is usually about a year old by the time it is available on this service. Data Protection law is tightening up in a big way in Britain and a new Act of Parliament will mean that information like this may not be available for much longer, so the time to act is now!

Message board sites are another useful way to make contact and have many successes, although they can be hit and miss. Here are a few free sites for the UK:
Friends Reunited
Missing You
Around
Reunite
Net In Touch

The British Legion website has a 'Lost Trails' message section on their site for services and ex services personnel.

The Salvation Army runs the most famous tracing service in the UK. They have an excellent website explaining all aspects of their service.

Basically the conditions are that they search only for family members (no friends), do not handle adoption cases, will only search for fathers if parents were married and will contact the person sought on your behalf without revealing their address. If you can comply with all of these then as a non-profit making organisation this is an excellent option in terms of cost, but may take several months.

If your family member is missing and may be in a vulnerable situation, the Nation Missing Persons Helpline is a charity that helps with search and support.

If you have no luck with any of the above, or just want the convenience of finding someone else to do the work for you, how do you find a reputable researcher or investigator?

Genealogists don't just look for dead ancestors and many carry out all aspects of research including tracing living relatives and lost friends. The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) has an on-line list of researchers and their specialist areas. All members have been tested and approved as competent and must adhere to a code of practice.

Detectives can be quicker as they may have access to sophisticated databases, but can be much more expensive so make sure you obtain a firm quote or set a budget first.

The Association of British Investigators site also has a list of members that comply with a code of practice.

Links to many of these sites and more can be found on my own web site.

Happy Hunting!

by Karen Bali

www.britishexpat.com

New BABC Board Member

Joining the Board of the Council is Charles Carrington.

Charles is a Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP specializing in Business Process and Controls, Internal Audit, and Risk Management. For the last two years Charles has spend much of his professional time advising companies on their response to the Sarbanes Oxley Act (2002), in particular, Companies' response to the internal control elements of this legislation.

Charles has worked in the Philadelphia region since 2000. Prior to his move to the United States, he worked with Deloitte in London and Bristol (UK).

He is married to Louise and has three children Edward (5), Kate (5) and Emma (2).

Jeremy Pelczer to succeed Bill Alexander as CEO of RWE Thames Water

Bill Alexander, CEO of RWE Thames Water plc, will retire at the end of November 2005. The RWE AG Executive Board has named Jeremy Pelczer, the current CEO of American Water, to succeed Bill Alexander at that time. Jeremy Pelczer will remain the CEO of American Water, the RWE Thames Water subsidiary that is the largest water services provider in North America, until a successor for that position has been appointed.

In his new role, Jeremy Pelczer will head RWE Thames Water, the world's third largest water company. With more than 17,000 employees, RWE Thames Water today is a leading specialist in water and wastewater services, offering some 70 million customers high quality, reliable water services. Jeremy Pelczer joined the UK-based company in 1996 and has held various positions within the company. He has also been a major contributor to RWE Thames Water's international growth.

American Water is an Ambassador member of the BABC.

For more information, click here.

Recent US & UK International Tax Developments

On September 27, the BABC host a roundtable entitled "Recent US and UK International Tax Developments" at the Pyramid Club. The event was moderated by Michael Swanick, PWC's Global tax leader of the Pharmaceutical Industry practice and President of the BABC, and had as speakers Hal Hicks, Associate Chief Counsel (International) in the Office of Chief Counsel at the IRS; Gary Wilcox, Tax Partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; and Jonathan Hare, International Tax Partner with PWC. The panelist led a discussion on a variety of topics, including the American Jobs Creation Act including the repatriation of foreign earnings, dual consolidated losses, transfer pricing, cross-border M7A issues, US inbound developments including earnings-stripping update, section 894 update, and a legislative outlook.

Many thanks to PricewaterhouseCoopers and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP who were sponsors for the event.