Gabriel is a Trade Commissioner at the Embassy of Canada in Saudi Arabia, responsible for the Infrastructure and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sectors.

As an international trade specialist at the Embassy of Canada, Gabriel drives business and revenue growth for large companies in diverse industries. He analyzes, identifies and facilitates multimillion dollar international business opportunities, adding value by matching each company with appropriate partners in the Mid East and East Asia regions.

Finding his way to Saudi Arabia

Gabriel’s global trade career began far away from his current posting in Saudi Arabia, in a finance position in Boston, MA.

Gabriel first went to school to obtain a BComm in Finance from Concordia University in Montreal, graduating in 2010.

“I got a job at a hedge fund in Boston. Serving as Financial Analyst for Gottex Fund Management, I measured fund performance, performed due diligence and prepared quantitative reports for investment programs from 2010 – 2011.”

It was while working as a financial analyst that Gabriel first discovered he wanted to pursue a more international career, applying for post-graduate studies in International Management at Royal Holloway, University of London.

I realized that I wanted to expand my horizons and continue to engage myself internationally, whereby I discovered a role that complements my interests in international trade.

Building business relationships at the highest level

As a trade commissioner at the Embassy of Canada in Saudi Arabia, Gabriel’s day consists of gathering intelligence on the local market and connecting Canadian companies with qualified local contacts.

He works hard to advance Canada’s presence in Mid East markets, using his project leadership skills and devising market penetration strategies that highlight the strengths of Canadian companies. He also makes use of his language proficiencies in English, Arabic, French and Chinese to liaise with clients in their native language, a valuable asset in forming international business relationships.

Gabriel finds the opportunities to use these skills at an official, high-stakes level to be the most thrilling.

The most exciting projects are high-level Canadian government visits to advance commercial interests in Saudi Arabia.

One of the projects he’s proudest of is connecting one of Saudi Arabia’s largest companies with a Canadian company, forming a profitable new relationship for both parties.

“I brought together a Canadian company, AirG, with Saudi’s largest telecom, STC, building a strong foundation for new business development. Their relationship is projected to generate 3-4 Million CAD annual revenue and has strong growth potential. I achieved this by networking with industry experts and Saudi government officials to extract market intelligence and critically analyze market conditions.”

Gabriel has worked on many other projects bringing Canadian and Saudi Arabian businesses together to a successful end.

“By gathering timely market information, developing a strong market strategy, vetting potential partners and meeting with key decision-makers, I enabled a Canadian company, Arconas, to secure an extremely competitive project valued at more than half a million dollars to install public seating at King Fahad Int’l Airport.”

He has also contributed to new business opportunities in East Asia by networking with associates in China and Hong Kong and connecting them with Canadian companies to promote international partnerships.

What it takes to be an international success

For all of his hard work and results-driven successes in his role, the Canadian Embassy to Saudi Arabia recognized Gabriel with a prestigious award in May 2015.

“I was presented an outstanding performance award, handed by the former Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia for my excellent contribution to our Embassy. I’ve earned this by working hard and focusing on building myself to progressively become better at my role and serve the whole department.”

Gabriel saw the FITTskills International Business Program as a way to further improve his skills and better serve the Embassy. He took all the FITTskills courses online, enabling him to easily complete the program and apply for his elite CITP®|FIBP® designation from his location in Riyadh, halfway around the world.

The FITTskills courses were productive and useful to my role, as I am now able to comprehend different types of international trade and distinguish them better. This gives my clients a higher satisfaction in the quality of responses I am able to provide them.

On top of improving his job performance, earning the CITP®|FIBP® designation has given him confidence in his professional standing as an international trade practitioner, accredited with the world’s leading import/export credentials.

“I feel that earning the CITP®|FIBP® designation gives me a competitive advantage in the everyday work I do. I foresee this designation complementing my experience to help show the world my capabilities as an international trade specialist.”

Gabriel takes pride in all aspects of his position at the Canadian Embassy, contributing to the organization in many ways, outside of his key responsibilities of forming business relationships.

He has co-chaired the Occupational Health and Safety Committee (OHSC), ensuring acceptable work conditions for all staff members at the Canadian Embassy. He also served as Social Media Leader for the Commercial Section at the Embassy. One of his tasks in this leadership position was to launch and advocate for social media initiatives in compliance with Federal Digital Diplomacy Act.

With a strong international background, multilingual communication skills, collaborative relationship-building and team leadership attributes, Gabriel’s career is heading in a great direction.

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Poor energy production and infrastructure are challenges right now in the country. This lack of a robust energy sector and as well as insufficient travel networks creates barriers that prevent the country from growing in other sectors, such as mining and manufacturing. If factories and facilities can’t get the energy they need to operate, and if there isn’t the proper infrastructure in place to bring in equipment and raw materials and send out final products, growth becomes stagnant.

“They’re looking for the technologies and the capabilities, and they’re also looking for the funding,” says one Canadian Trade Commissioner working in Central America.  “Most of the time a partnership is formed between the public sector here, which manages the infrastructure, with private entities, which could be foreign or local.”

The situation is similar in neighbouring Costa Rica. The Costa Rican government gave a concession to a Spanish firm called Autopistas del Sol to build a highway from San José to the Port of Cladera (Pacific coast). The Costa Rican government gave the firm a concession under the public-private partnership model to enable the company to build the highway—named Autopistas del Sol after the firm—and manage the concession. It’s now a toll route that can be used by anyone who pays.

It’s very modern, and it’s one of the main arteries to the Pacific coast. And it’s a very strategic highway, not only for trade because the highway basically ends at the port, and because any cargo that comes in from the coast can get to the city within a two-hour drive, but it’s also an artery for tourism.

Autopistas del Sol used its own technology and financing to build the highway, and the Costa Rican government gave the firm a year concession to collect revenue from the tolls. When the concession ends, the highway will become the property of the government.

In Nicaragua this model is being used in the renewable energy sector. Firms can obtain land concessions, where they can  drill and transform geothermal energy into electrical energy that is then sold into the power grid.

These types of opportunities in clean-tech, infrastructure and other sectors are very open to foreign direct investors right now.

The atmosphere here is about networking and really getting to know potential partners and stakeholders. It’s about reaching out to them and sharing your vision, strategy and products.

PRONicaragua, a local government-backed investment promotion agency, is at the front line of pushing these growth and partnership opportunities. Not only does it work to help investors get the information and contacts they need to proceed, but it also assists them with setting up shop and solving any issues they may encounter while trying to get established.

Nicaragua was recently ranked third in terms of energy investment opportunities in a Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Climatescope 2013 report. The Canadian Embassy partnered with PRONicaragua to promote this at their seminar and conference on October 29, 2013, offering Canadian businesses personalized business match-making sessions and the chance to connect with key stakeholders.

Have you done trade with Nicaragua or another market in Central America? We want to hear about your experience, so comment below!

For more information on investment opportunities in Nicaragua, Costa Rica or Honduras, you can contact the Trade Commissioner Service at the Embassy of Canada in Costa Rica.

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