FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Gita Brown, 401-456-8465, gbrown@ric.edu
Laura Hart, 401-456-8977, lhart@ric.edu
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Yesterday United States Ambassador to Portugal Robert Sherman of Massachusetts spoke at a town hall meeting at Rhode Island College as part of his New England tour to mark the first anniversary of his ambassadorship. This meeting was sponsored by The Institute of Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at Rhode Island College.
Dignitaries in attendance were U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, Vice-Consul of Portugal to Providence Marcia Sousa, R.I. Sen. Daniel DaPonte, R.I. House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, R.I. Rep. Helio Melo and Mass. Sen. Michael Rodrigues.
Reed said, “As our ambassador to Portugal, Ambassador Sherman works to strengthen the strategic partnership between our two great nations. We have a vibrant and proud Portuguese community here in the Ocean State, and I’m grateful to the many Rhode Islanders of Portuguese heritage whose talents, traditions and culture help make our state a better place.”
As Rhode Island’s congressman, Cicilline remarked that he is proud to represent the congressional district in America that has the largest percentage of Portuguese Americans of any congressional district in the country.
Cicilline praised Rhode Island College President Nancy Carriuolo for her support of The Institute of Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at RIC and for her “passionate advocacy” for a strong U.S.-Portugal relationship.
He also spoke of the importance of navigating a new relationship between the United States and Portugal built on a strategic political, economic and military friendship.
“The topics that will be under discussion today are wide-ranging geopolitical issues,” said Carriuolo. “This event provides a teachable moment for all of us, particularly Rhode Island College students who are here today and who represent communication, history, political science, Portuguese studies, management, marketing and many other departments and fields of study at Rhode Island College.”
Following comments by Vice-Consul Sousa, Sherman took questions regarding U.S.-Portugal bilateral relations, including international security, economics and trade with Portugal.
Sherman said that he knew there are concerns in the Portuguese American community about the United States’ reduction in military personnel at the Lajes Air Base in Portugal and the ensuing unemployment due to this reduction, particularly when Portugal was just coming out of an economic recession.
Sherman said that he has met with the president of Portugal and proposed a new strategic relationship with the United States based on maritime security. There are major issues in the world, he said, involving piracy, terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and fishing rights disputes. This new strategic relationship, he said, “would also expand Portugal’s maritime economic zone.”
The ambassador has also made proposals to the regional government for a new and more modern economic relationship with the United States that would involve diversifying jobs so that Portugal will not have to rely on the air base for financial stability.
He proposed sustainable economic opportunities, specifically, building up entrepreneurial businesses in Portugal. There is a “tremendous amount of talent” in information technology (IT) in Portugal, Sherman noted. “MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] wrote that the quality of innovation and technology in Portugal is equivalent to that coming out of major American universities.”
But what Portugal doesn’t have is access to capital, he said. “What we’re trying to do is marry Portuguese innovation with U.S. investments,” said Sherman.
To that effect, Sherman led a trade mission to Portugal in July 2014, consisting of a delegation of 12 entrepreneurs and investors. “I wanted not only to show them the range of technological opportunities in Portugal, I wanted them to fall in love with Portugal as I have,” Sherman said.
An upcoming trade mission in June 2015 will focus on life sciences opportunities in Portugal and will be led by Nobel Prize winner in medicine Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts, Sherman said.
A second economic initiative Sherman has established is a mentoring program for Portuguese female business owners, led by Sherman’s wife, Kim Sawyer. The Connect to Success program provides business mentoring for a year by a team of executives at 24 large corporations.
Sherman noted that 300 women signed up, creating more demand than mentors. To accommodate them all, he launched additional consulting, training and educational workshops.
A third initiative on the economic front, Sherman said, is his active promotion of T-Tech, a free trade agreement that eliminates or substantially reduces tariffs on a range of IT products. “We went to local businesses to explain why T-Tech is important for any business that wants to expand on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
Sherman projects that these and other 21st-century opportunities will build a new and more modern U.S.-Portugal alliance.
Ambassador Sherman is a lawyer by background who has been active in local and national politics for many years. He has a wide-range of trial and regulatory experience, including government investigations and litigation and internal corporate investigations – with an emphasis on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance – as well as consumer protection and class action defense. Sherman was an original member of the Obama for America National Finance Committee and a member of President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team. In January 2013, President Obama appointed Ambassador Sherman to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and in the same year he was made ambassador, beginning his appointment in April 2014.
The Institute of Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at Rhode Island College is designed to support and promote the Portuguese Studies academic program at the college, to bridge the connection between the college and the Lusophone community, and to pursue scholarly and cultural research in the areas of the Portuguese language and Lusophone culture.
