Robert P. Smith, a pioneer in helping markets develop, as well
as the president, founder and managing director of Turan
Corporation, of Boston, Mass., will speak on "America's Promise and
Perils for the Twenty-First Century," at the second lecture in the
Open Doors Lecture series at the University of the Virgin Islands.
The public is invited to the St. Thomas presentation which will be
held at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 25, in UVI's Administration
Conference Center. It can also be attended via videoconference at
the Great Hall on the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix.
Open Doors Lectures, sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts
and Social Sciences, are designed to provide a forum in which
internationally recognized academics and practitioners can share
their knowledge on vital topics with the University community and
the public. With the closing of HOVENSA and the general economic
recession, there has been much discussion on the state of the
economy and its effects on tourism, financial services and other
sectors here and in the wider Caribbean.
A graduate of Bowdoin College and Boston University School of Law School, Smith served as an economic officer for the State Department United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Viet Nam, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Brazil. He later joined Deltec Bank of São Paulo, Brazil, before returning to the United States in the mid-1970s where he established a law practice specializing in international debt collections. The author of "Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy," Smith has worked with governments in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nigeria, Vietnam and Russia. He is well positioned to provide an authoritative up-to-date perspective on the present state of the global economy.
For more information, please contact Dian Levons at (340) 693-1260 or dlevons@live.uvi.edu on St. Thomas or Rishina Williams at (340) 692-4110 or rwillia@live.uvi.edu --on St. Croix.