World Partnerships Executive Biographies

Gary L. Springer
President

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Since 2008, Mr. Springer has been President and a member of the Board of Trustees of World Partnerships, Inc. (and its predecessor organization, The International Council of the Tampa Bay Region, Inc.), the official partner of the United States Department of State for professional programs & cultural activities for global emerging leaders under the Department’s “International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP)” in Florida's seven-county Tampa Bay Region. Since its founding in 2000, World Partnerships has hosted in excess of 7,500 international visitors from 195 countries.

Gary L. Springer is a specialist in global business, trade, regulatory, and public policy issues.  In his over thirty-year career as an executive in large professional services firms, non-profit organizations and as a private consultant, Mr. Springer has advised foreign and domestic governments (Federal, state and local) and private corporations in the areas of: Global business and trade strategies, trade and investment promotion, strategic communications, national image-building, trade policy, trade negotiations, government affairs, corporate market expansion, and crisis management.  Mr. Springer has held executive positions in the past with: SEI – International Economic Development Partners (President), the Gulf of Mexico States Accord (Secretary-General, elected by 5 US and 6 Mexican state governors), the Gulf of Mexico States Partnership, Inc. (President), KPMG (Senior Director – International Trade & Customs Services), Fleishman-Hillard International Communications (Vice President – Latin America), the law firm of Shearman & Sterling (Senior Advisor for Latin America), the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (Director of Programs; Director of Communications), the Mexico-US Business Committee (Deputy Director), Business International Corporation (Associate Editor), and Enterprise Florida (Head of Mexico Office for the State of Florida). While in graduate school, Mr. Springer was a graduate assistant at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington, DC), and a project researcher at the Inter-American Foundation (Rosslyn, VA).

Mr. Springer holds a M.A. in Government (international relations and political philosophy) from Georgetown University (1980) and a B.A. in Political Science (international relations, Latin America, and Spanish) from West Virginia University (1978). He is fluent in Spanish, and reads Portuguese.

Gary L. Springer
Career Highlights

Lead Counsel to the Mexican Government for the NAFTA Negotiations team, while Senior Advisor for Latin America at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling, and other international commercial and public policy matters.

Founding Trustee of World Partnerships (and its predecessor organizations), the official host organization for the US Department of State “International Visitor Leadership Program.” The organization has brought in excess of 6,300 emerging leaders from 194 countries to the Tampa Bay region since 2000.

Consultant to The World Bank for worldwide “Country Image Building” Development Module for foreign direct investment attraction, as a private consultant.

Principal author of “International Cornerstone” (1997), the Florida Chamber Foundation’s first strategic plan for international market expansion for Florida government and business, while Senior Director, International Trade & Customs Services, KPMG. Mr. Springer and Ms. Upton were also principal co-authors of the international chapter of the Chamber Foundation’s “New Cornerstone” study as private consultants (2002).

Lead Author of “Critical Factors of Success in Attracting Foreign Direct Investment”, a strategic plan for a consortium of private companies in a major Latin American market while at KPMG.

Project originator and site selection consultant for $400 million investment for a major scientific research organization, as a private consultant.

Grant recipient of the first Federally-funded Gulf of Mexico regional trade corridor study and organizer of the first Gulf of Mexico Congressional Caucus, and founding President of the Gulf of Mexico States Partnership, a business association counterpart to the GOMSA.

Principal drafter of the first “Memorandum of Cooperation on Short Sea Shipping” between the US Maritime Administration and its Mexican counterpart, and a similar agreement between MARAD, the Gulf of Mexico States Accord and the Gulf of Mexico States Partnership.

Principal author, first “Memorandum of Cooperation on Environment and Public Health” between Mexico & the US.

Liaison between the US and Mexican private sectors, during the interregnum between the Mexican foreign debt crisis and the onset of the NAFTA negotiations (1984-1990) as deputy director for the Mexico-US Business Committee, the oldest binational organization between the two countries.

Advisor on foreign direct investment promotion, strategic communications and crisis management for a Mexican public/private partnership, the Mexican Investment Board, for a decade.

Co-author of “The Mexican Financial Crisis: Genesis, Impact and Implications” for the University of Miami’s Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs (1995 - with Dr. Jorge Molina Larrondo).

First Secretary-General of the Gulf of Mexico States Accord (GOMSA), unanimously elected by the 11 state governors of the Gulf of Mexico border states in Mexico and the US.

Gulf of Mexico Regional Representative, Maritime Transportation System National Advisory Council (MTSNAC), Office of the Secretary, United States Department of Transportation.

Lead organizer of the largest trade mission in Florida’s history (1999) for Governor Jeb Bush and Enterprise Florida to Mexico. 

Manager and facilitator of hundreds of meetings between Latin American Presidents, Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials and senior US business executives, while at the Council of the Americas, the preeminent US business organization dedicated to the Latin American market with offices in New York and Washington. While at Shearman & Sterling, Mr. Springer was a member of the Council of the Americas Corporate Advisory Board.

Mary Ellen Upton 
Executive Director

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Mary Ellen Upton, Executive Director and Trustee of World Partnerships, brings substantial experience to the field of management consulting, international event management, and international economic development.  Ms. Upton was the founding Executive Director of World Partnerships and its predecessor organization – The International Council of the Tampa Bay Region, Inc. World Partnerships is the exclusive US Department of State regional partner for the “International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).

Ms. Upton has organized over 50,000 professional meetings for over 7,500 international visitors from over 195 countries since 2000. In 2002, she successfully advocated two years of State of Florida funding for the statewide IVLP network (6 councils), the first ever grant from any state government in the US.   

She has worked closely with the US Department of State and its seven national program agencies to develop professional, community and cultural resources in the seven-county Tampa Bay area. Under her leadership and direction, World Partnerships has earned an outstanding reputation for programming excellence under the International Visitor Leadership Program, the United States’ pre-eminent public diplomacy program.

Prior to leading World Partnerships on a full-time basis in 2008, Ms. Upton’s company, International Events, Inc., provided professional services to public and private sector clients, including: foreign corporate orientation visits in the US; corporate on-site visits; in-bound trade and investment missions; and business-related conferences, seminars, meetings and events. She has been a contractor for the US Department of Transportation, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of State, and the World Bank.
​Mary Ellen Upton, Executive Director of World Partnerships, was honored as a Finalist for "Non-Profit Executive of 2015" by the Tampa Bay Business Journal "2015 Business Woman of the Year" Awards. Mary Ellen founded the organization in 2000, and welcomed our first three visitors in 2001. Since then, World Partnerships has welcomed 7,500+ IVLP visitors, Fulbright Visiting Scholars, and Foreign Service Institute trainees to St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area!

Mary Ellen Upton
Career Highlights

World Bank Country Image-Building Symposium (Washington, DC.).  Under a sole-source contract to the World Bank, Ms. Upton organized and managed a one-day symposium on country image-building at the Bank headquarters in Washington, DC.  The symposium brought  senior executives from international communications firms together to discuss, for the first time, best practices and common problems faced by national governments in creating, managing and defending their country image for the purposed of attracting foreign direct investment. The conference resulted in major program innovations at the World Bank.

US Department of Transportation sole-source contractor.  For the US Maritime Administration, Ms. Upton’s woman-owned, small business contractor firm organized and managed a series of major conferences and workshops related to the promotion of short-sea shipping in the United States.  These included the 2003 conference (Sarasota, Florida) with over 200 participants; the 2004 conference (New York City) with more than 250 attendees; in 2005, Ms. Upton assisted MARAD for its tri-national conference, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in collaboration with the Canadian and Mexican governments, attended by over 500 government officials and shipping industry executives; in 2006, she organized the first “America’s Maritime Highways” symposium in New York, as well as the second event, held in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2008.

US Department of State grantee.  In 2000, Ms. Upton was responsible for the application process that led to the designation of World Partnerships, Inc. as the official State regional partner for the Tampa Bay area, as well as its first government contract in 2003. World Partnerships has been a major grantee up to the present time.

US Environmental Protection Agency sole-source contractor.  For the first “binational symposium on hazardous algal blooms” between the US and Mexico, Ms. Upton organized the Mexican delegation to the event, as well as a meeting of the Executive Committee and Working Groups of the Gulf of Mexico States Accord in conjunction with EPA.

First Executive Director, Gulf of Mexico States Accord General Secretariat. Beginning in 2000, Ms. Upton was responsible for planning and execution of over 60 formal meetings of the Accord Executive Committee, roundtable meetings of its seven Working Groups, and the Accord’s Annual Conferences. These meetings took place in Florida, Louisiana, Veracruz, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Campeche, and Washington, D.C.; she organized the Accord’s annual conferences – a major event involving 11 state governors from Mexico and the US, as well as hundreds of participants – with state governments in Florida, Veracruz, Louisiana, Tabasco, and Quintana Roo. These meetings were frequently attended by Federal government officials from the US and Mexico. First Gulf Accord Strategic Planning Session: Ms. Upton planned and managed this conference in Orlando, Florida, which included delegations from all 11 Accord members states, and hosted by the Secretary of State of Florida.

Gulf of Mexico States Partnership. A member of the Board of Directors of this Gulf-wide business association, Ms. Upton planned and executed Board meetings in Washington, D.C., Tampa, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. She was also a member of the team that won a Congressional grant to undertake the first Gulf of Mexico Trade Corridor study. Gulf of Mexico Trade Corridor Study Stakeholder’s Meeting. Chaired by the Secretary of State of Louisiana, this working session was attended by 60 senior state officials and private sector executives from the 11 states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the USDOT and the US EPA.

China In-Bound Trade Mission. On behalf of the City of Tampa, Florida, Ms. Upton organized and managed a four-day mission for a delegation from Jiaxing City, China, led by the Vice Mayor of Jiaxing Province and included senior Chinese Federal and provincial officials, and private sector leaders.

County-Level International Trade Missions. From January 2000-September 2001, Ms. Upton helped to develop and manage the Pinellas County (Florida) Economic Development “Mexico Initiative,” which included developing business relationships; “branding” Pinellas County among Mexican businesses and public officials; and promoting new trade and investment flows with Mexico.