Narbeli Galindo – GlobalEITRade LLC President & CEO, Mealman Business Leadership and Innovation Chair, and Associate Professor of Business and Economics – presented on “NextGen International Trade Professional: Preparing a Pipeline for Kansas City”. 

Narbeli has had quite the expansive and impressive upbringing and career. She was born in Colombia, grew up in Switzerland, attended University in Austin, TX and then pursued graduate school at Thunderbird in Arizona. Her career jumpstarted in New York City with Warner Lambert/Pfizer where she travelled and lived throughout Japan, UK, and Colombia. She then joined AT&T as an International Marketing Manager Senior Strategist, before relocating to Kansas City to serve as the Global Marketing Strategist for Sprint. In 2003, Narbeli seized the opportunity to start her own importing business – Narbeli’s Imports LLC – where she imported items from over 20 countries with clients such as Nelson Atkins and Kauffman. She has also served as Senior Marketing Strategist at Cerner and Professor of International Management at UMKC. 

Community Involvement is clearly a passion of Narbeli’s, as evidenced by her work and leadership with International Trade Council of Greater KC, International Relations Council, KC International Steering Committee, South KC Chamber of Commerce, and the FBI Kansas City Citizens Academy. Her work with these groups led to another career change landing Narbeli at the Economic Development Council of Kansas City serving as the Director of International Trade & Affairs. Unsurprisingly – Narbeli was recognized with several awards throughout her time in this role. 

Throughout her career, Narbeli quickly realized that companies need help understanding and utilizing their resources to go global. To satisfy this need, Narbeli founded GlobalEITrade LLC to consult on all things global!

Narbeli left the group with a few tips that she has learned over the years:

1. Stay informed
2. Network
3. Volunteer
4. It is all up to you, how far you want go
5. Learn to prioritize
6. Be curious
7. Be adaptable and flexible
8. Partner with others
9. Keep learning
10. Get vaccinated 

Watch the recording and/or download the slides.

Written by Kelly Steck, ITC Board Member