StarTek Appoints Chad Carlson CEO and President
July 13th, 2011Source: StarTek
DENVER – StarTek, Inc. today announced that current ExecutiveVice President and Chief Operating Officer Chad A. Carlson will succeed A. Laurence Jones as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
“Personally, and on behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to thank Larry for his service to StarTek over the past four years. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” said Ed Zschau, StarTek’s Chairman. “We feel that now is the right time to make a leadership change, and we are pleased to announce Chad Carlson as StarTek’s new President and CEO. Chad has demonstrated his ability to lead StarTek’s operations through a very difficult period during the past year, and we believe he is ideally suited to lead the Company to a return to profitability as it completes its turnaround.”
Chad has over fifteen years of experience in the …
Region’s Evolution Beats Skepticism
June 13th, 2011
By Eric Hochstein
A few years ago, when I heard people talking about Latin America as an emerging location for call centers and outsourcing delivery operations for companies in the United States, I was extremely skeptical.
At that time, I was working for a Canadian provincial government trying to attract investment to Canada. Central and South American alternatives were rarely considered by companies considering Canada. Sure, the exchange rate between the U.S. and Canada favored the U.S. then (now, the dollars are at par), and there were major concerns about the quality and capabilities of Latin American workforces.
I believed that Latin America had great potential for Spanish-speaking contact centers, perhaps to respond to the expanding needs of the U.S. Hispanic market, but I doubted there was enough bilingual and English-language talent to meet the needs for those types of agents …
The seventh edition of Costa Rica Technology Insight 2011 opened Wednesday. The conference has featured attendance by Anabel Gonzalez, Minister of Commerce and President of the board of directors of PROCOMER, the foreign trade promotion agency; Jorge Sequeira, General Manager of PROCOMER; and Alexander Mora, President of CAMTIC, the association of IT and communications industries.
The conference has attracted 160 Costa Rican and international businesses looking to establish business and production partnerships.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Frances Karamaousis, VP and analyst for Gartner. She discussed the high value of Costa Rican human capital and the need to continue with an educational process that will enhance the country’s capabilities.
In the same vein, Minister González stressed that “the sector of digital technology has been very successful.” It is innovative, organized, and presents a vision for the country’s future, she said. The results are evident: 30% of total exports of …
Outsourcing in Latin America: Are We There Yet?
March 9th, 2011
The view on Argentina: The government has to get serious on incentives.
A LatAm-specific dive into A.T. Kearney’s 2011 Global Services Location Index
By Rodrigo Slelatt
Talk of Latin America emerging as a key offshoring location has grown significantly in the last few years. Multinationals and top outsourcing providers have set up delivery centers there, and countries in the region are making significant efforts to attract offshoring-related investment. Despite the efforts, the question remains as to how soon Latin America will become recognized as an established outsourcing region.
Latin America’s proximity to the U.S. consumer market has certainly served it well as a services hub. With a growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States and English proficiency rising in Latin America, customer service activities will naturally increase. But the region is aiming higher – just like India and the Philippines did over a decade ago. Latin America wants to become a global player in the BPO and ITO space. And for that it takes more than just language skills and proximity.
Auxis Expands Outsourcing Service Center in Costa Rica
February 23rd, 2011South Florida outsourcing company Auxis says it will expand its nearshore service center in San José, Costa Rica, now providing IT and accounting services to its clients in the United States and across Latin America. It has been in the Central American country for more than 18 months.
The Plantation, Fla., company says it is growing at the Ultrapark Free Trade Zone and Business Center, near an educated employee base from nearby Interamerican University, the country’s largest private university, and Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica’s second-largest public university.
U.S. firms Pfizer, Roche, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Amazon, and Intel do business in the zone, according to Auxis.
“We see nearshore outsourcing as a tremendous opportunity for both our clients and Auxis,” said Auxis CEO Raul Vega. “The expansion of our Costa Rica service center provides us a more robust platform for delivering competitive advantage for our clients. It is a key component of our overall growth …
LatAm Economic Growth: Is Costa Rica Being Left Behind?
February 2nd, 2011Weak growth and high fiscal deficits caused Costa Rica not to share the good times experienced by other South American countries such as Panama and Mexico.
International analysts believe that the Costa Rican economy has moved away, unfortunately, from the Latin American emerging economies.
Aldesa analysis says that the growth pace in emerging and developed economies seen since the last global crisis will continue in 2011 to become a new balance of power which will benefit the economies of China, Brazil and India.
According to analysts of U.S. banking giant JP Morgan, by 2017, emerging markets constitute 50% of global GDP, while China, India and U.S. will be the three largest economies in the world. In 2030 Brazil will be the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of Japan and the European Union.
The U.S. has escaped the fate of developed countries which …
WikiLeaks: Behind the Curtain, Costa Rica is Not So Neutral
January 20th, 2011As more and more WikiLeaks cables are released, a true cloak and dagger picture of U.S. foreign policy is emerging. Take, for example, recent documents pertaining to Central America, where the Bush administration sought to bolster its regional allies in an effort to counteract the political influence of Venezuela.
Alarmed by rising star Hugo Chávez, who was fast making ideological inroads within Washington’s traditional sphere of influence, diplomats promised to collaborate on sensitive intelligence gathering in an effort to halt the region’s dangerous shift to the left.
One cable dates to November, 2004 when the region’s so-called “Pink Tide” was just getting underway. For five years, Chávez had been in power but in Central America the Bush administration could count on the support of a host of friendly client governments. Indeed, it would not be until several years later that leftists Daniel Ortega, Mauricio Funes and Manuel …
Inside HP’s Big Bet on Costa Rica
November 16th, 2010Does Costa Rica’s gain become Argentina’s loss?
By Dennis Barker
Call it a vote of confidence in Costa Rica.
When HP last week announced details of its $1 billion plan to expand its offshore outsourcing services, the little country of 4 million was revealed as one of the company’s six new global delivery hubs. (The other “Best Shore” hubs are China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Bulgaria.) As a result, Costa Rica will play a bigger role in HP’s Latin America operations and will also see an increase in the number of job opportunities.
Exclusive: HP to Expand to 6,000 Employees in Costa Rica
November 12th, 2010 NSAM Staff Report
A key part of the $1 billion investment HP is making to expand its offshore outsourcing capabilities includes a dedicated effort to triple the size of the firm’s San Jose, Costa Rica center from about 2,000 employees now to nearly 6,000 over the next five years, according to informed sources.
This week HP identified six countries-Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, India, Malaysia and the Philippines-as its global delivery hubs. Executives from HP have made it clear that these destinations are where “clients are headed,” which can be interpreting as meaning that have a viable, long-term presence in stable and low-cost geographies helps balance the company’s delivery portfolio. The re-org includes eliminating about 9,000 positions, mostly in developed markets.
The Costa Rica decision reflects HP’s confidence in the ongoing cultivation of the skilled, tech-savvy labor pool of San Jose. The firm arrived as EDS in 2006 and – although it …
Photo Op of the Week: President Chinchilla and the Importance of Getting Out of the Office
October 15th, 2010
We all know presidents have a lot to do – no matter what country they preside over. However, there is nothing more powerful than that president getting out of the presidential office and getting into the intersection of trade, commerce and education. President Laura Chinchilla, a friend of Nearshore Americas, is clearly setting a tone around her new administration that strongly encourages investment from multinationals – especially in the area of ICT. (The press release describing Chinchilla’s visit to the newly christened 500-employee Convergys facility in Costa Rica follows below).
Another president working hard to deliver some of that same energy to his country is Dr. Leonel Fernández Reyna, president of the Dominican Republic, who recently visited the The University of Texas at Austin to nurture ties between the university and the DR in the areas of IT and technical education exchange.
