The Pentair Corporation will present a live 7:00 AM (!!) teleconference with a team of its engineers from Mexico, the USA, Germany and China. Over breakfast (compliments of Pentair) we will hear from each of them and be able to ask them about the nature of their global teamwork. How often do they meet? What are the challenges and hurdles? What are the cultural issues? How can higher education prepare students for global teamwork?

The organizer for this unusual session is Laurie Burger, Director of Business Development at Pentair Electronic Packaging. She heads a team of engineers in Rhode Island and coordinates activities with their partners throughout the world for collaborative product design, development, and manufacture. To illustrate how they work, she has asked some of her partners around the globe to join us for an hour of conversation, including opportunity for audience interaction. The participants, along with Laurie Burger, will be:

• China - Pentair Technical Products China (via telecon)
  • Eric Chen, Design Engineer
  • Ying Augenstein, Director, Sales

• Germany - Pentair Technical Products Europe (via telecon)
  • Volker Haag - Director New Product Development
  • Dietmar Mann - Senior Design Engineer  (worked in Japan for several years )

• Mexico - Pentair Electronic Packaging (via telecon)
  • Alberto Ramon - Plant Manager

• Rhode Island - Pentair Electronic Packaging (in person)
  • Neil Petrarca, Senior Design Engineer (URI IEP grad)

Come and join this interesting session. We apologize for the early hour, but such is the nature of teamwork that spans the globe!