Dear AMCHAM Members and friends,
As I write this we are busy getting organized and ready for our 31 January New Year’s reception hosted jointly by BCEE and La Lux insurance. We have 250 guests who will be joining us, a capacity crowd and are thrilled to have our Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, as our Guest of Honor and only speaker. It should be an exceptional evening and we will look forward to telling you about it and showing you photos two weeks later. We are likewise trying to produce a video version of my introduction and the Prime Minister’s speech… please keep your fingers crossed for us…
Last week we were so proud and pleased with the brilliant interview coming from our friend, H.E. Vladimír Bärtl, the Czech Ambassador. He is an exceptional person and has worked so hard with so many of his Czech governmental colleagues at a critical juncture in European and global history. I envy his close proximity to all aspects of this exciting period in history and very much thank him for sharing the wit and wisdom of his observations with our AMCHAM audience. If you missed it, please find it again HERE.
My team has suggested that this week we share with you a few of the things we have been collectively doing during the closing weeks of the year and plan to do in the New Year.
Thanksgiving this past year was a big stress. It was very challenging and expensive to put on such a big event at Cercle Cite and the restrictions on movement imposed by the Christmas market road closure rules added further to the challenges we and our catering providers (food, drinks and ice-cream) and musician partners faced. In the end, with everyone working in partnership, we put on a very well received and quite wonderful event! Huge thanks to Minister of Finance, Yuriko Backes, US Ambassador Barrett, all of our Table and Tombola sponsoring partners, and our musicians led by Marco Boesen! We had a sold out crowd of 270 attendees and although the tombola prizes took too long, we are dedicated to fix this for next year so there will be more time for dancing!
Our two Christmas lunches likewise were successful with good energy and happy guests. Claude Marx was brilliant speaking at our Financial Sector committee Christmas lunch… I have the feeling this may well turn into an annual event. Likewise, we are so lucky to have Ambassador Barrett as US Ambassador to Luxembourg during this current period of global crisis… having a calm and friendly demeanor really helps us all stay happy, calm, and focused on the right priorities when things could so easily go another way.
In remembrance of and out of appreciation for the military men and women stations close across the border in Germany at the Spangdahlem Air force Base, we decides to select them this year to be the recipients of our 2022 Spirit of Freedom Award and invited the Wing Commander, his wife, Senior Enlisted Advisor and several other members of the Wing team to join us for our second more normal Christmas lunch for 150 people at the Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel. We deliberately put the Swarovsky Crystal Award statue in the center of the Head table as a table decoration and then had fun gifting it to the Wing Commander and his team along with a letter of commendation after we all finished lunch. It was gratifying to see how much they appreciated this recognition for their sacrifices to protect our freedom. I thank Ambassador Barrett, Ambassador Bärtl, Aero Club President Erpelding, Pilot Roeland Pels and three of our Exco Committee members (Gareth Reynolds, Keimpe Reitsma and James O’Neil) for joining me for this award presentation. See photos of Christmas and this award presentation HERE.
A week ago, I was pleased to get a formal thank you from the Wing Commander Leslie Hauck for what we had done (see HERE). I likewise was pleased to have photos of the newly built display case recently installed at the Wing Command Headquarters building at the Air Base which now holds our statue and letter (Please see those photos HERE). I am equally honored to have been told that seeing and hearing the story of this award and our Summer Aero Club Fly into the Airbase was part of the formal agenda for the USAF Vice Chief of Staff during his recent visit to the base.
So please take a look at the interview with me explaining what AMCHAM is and does. In the newsletter of next week we will publish our plans for the year 2023.
I most sincerely wish each and every one of you, your families, and your companies a healthy, happy, and rewarding New Year filled with success! Thanks for being part of our family and thank you for letting us serve you.
With respect and my very best wishes,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman & CEO
AMCHAM.lu
