Race Car Driver Turns to a Fast-Track M.B.A.

Steven Goldstein has always been fast on the racetrack, winning the Formula 2,000 Championships in 2004, but it was not until he graduated from the accelerated M.B.A. program at SDA Bocconi in Milan last December that the race car driver's brand really took off.

"There are many elements you need to be a succesful driver," says Mr. Goldstein. "Driving quickly is one of them, but there is a whole busines aspect and that's where I needed to learn more."

At Bocconi, he says his class on return on shareholder value taught him how to maximize his resources. Mr. Goldstein has since begun working with three sports and entertainment management agencies in Colombia, Europe, and the U.S. A class on digital marketing opened his eyes to brand visibiity and led him and his manager to set up a Facebook fan page, a wikipedia entry and a blog. "When people are lecturing, in my head [I'm] thinking, 'How am I going to apply this to my own field?'" says Mr. Goldstein. "I had a whole year and four months of how do I apply this to me?"

Before pursuing the M.B.A., the now 28-year-old driver was on the Official Audi Sport Italia Team and had a sponsorship with Café de Colombia. In January, a month after graduating, Mr. Goldstein signed a contract with Ferrari and has since widened his portfolio to include four sponsors and endorsements with three companies and three non-profit organizations from Café de Colombia to Italian tire company Pirelli, to Nokia, to the Barcelona-based non-profit Arts Relief.

"There was a path I wasn't sure how to cross to speak with all those potential clients," he says. Learning about the importance of working with outside agencies gave him instant exposure to these many clients, he adds.

What's more, instead of putting his race winnings in the bank as he had for the previous five years of his racing career, this year Mr. Goldstein invested in the Ferrari race team, with a 120% return on investment so far. "The Bocconi M.B.A. is quite heavy on the financial part," says Mr. Goldstein. "The first thing that made a big difference for me was to understand the math."
Growing up in Colombia, Mr. Goldstein earned his undergraduate degree at American University in Washington, D.C.where he majored in marketing. He began racing in 2002 and three years later, realized he needed an MBA if he wanted to build his brand.

"By [looking at] different angles, you understand there is an equation for a company to sponsor you," he says. Instead of just approaching potential sponsors with his list of racing awards, he now comes to them with a business plan--counting the hours of TV coverage in Europe and how much it would cost to advertise in such channels, for example, to show potential clients that an investment in his brand would be a wise move. "I sell myself as a business instead of just an athlete," he says.

Venezuela's loss is Colombia's gain in oil fields

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA — Until recently in a free fall because of terrorist attacks that scared off wildcat drillers, Colombia's oil production is staging a surprisingly robust rebound, boosted in no small part by the arrival of oil industry executives and engineers banished by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Increased production in Colombia, a U.S. ally, is important for U.S. consumers because it advances the goal of reducing the country's reliance on oil imports from unstable, unreliable or unfriendly governments.

At a public forum last month, Mining and Energy Minister Hernan Martinez said Colombian crude output would reach an average 700,000 barrels a day by December, cementing the nation's position as Latin America's fourth-largest producer after Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

Colombia's oil production for all of 2009 is estimated to average 645,000 daily barrels, up 10 percent from average daily output of 589,000 in 2008.

Shipping to the U.S.
Statistics from the U.S. Energy Department show that Colombia is a significant supplier to the United States. In May, it exported an average of 243,000 barrels of crude daily, making it the 13th-largest shipper of oil to the U.S.

“Colombia is ideally placed geographically to become an important exporter,” said Fred Kozak, an energy analyst at Canaccord Capital Corp. in Calgary, Alberta. Kozak and other observers expect production and exports to climb in coming months. The country is benefiting from an influx of investment attracted by its improved security. Oil pipeline attacks by leftist rebels, once the bane of the industry, totaled 32 last year, down from 261 in 2001.

Wildcat wells
Favorable terms and a low government “take,” or share of oil profits being claimed by the government of President Alvaro Uribe, are also luring investors. Exploratory oil wells drilled in Colombia totaled 98 last year, up from only 12 wildcat wells in 1999, said Alejandro Martinez, president of the Colombian Petroleum Association.

The expertise of scores of former employees of Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA, is providing added energy to production efforts. The majority arrived here after Chavez in 2003 fired 20,000 oil employees who participated in a strike in opposition to his policies.

Colombian production hit a high point in 1999 at 816,000 barrels a day after the discovery of two large oil fields, Cano Limon and Cusiana. Output declined over the next decade, dropping to 526,000 barrels a day in 2005.

No new discoveries
One discouraging aspect for investors about Colombian oil exploration is that no big oil fields have been discovered after three to four years of intensive drilling. Exxon Mobil Corp., Petrobras and other partners spent $135 million on a single deep- water well off Colombia's coast in 2007 and came up dry.

But unlike Mexico and Venezuela, where oil output is skidding, Colombia's is on the rise after years of decline, thanks to better recovery of oil at existing fields. National Hydrocarbons Agency Director Armando Zamora said Colombia's reserves rose 32 percent to 1.66 billion barrels of crude and equivalents in the year that ended in January.

The most promising source of new production is the Rubiales oil field in Meta state in Colombia's eastern jungle plains. The field has long existed, but rebel activity precluded its exploitation. Production there could double to 150,000 barrels a day over the next nine months. The field is controlled by Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. Its chief executive is Ronald Pantin, a former PDVA executive.

Colombia is only part of the PDVSA diaspora stretching from the Canadian tar sands to Houston to Mexico City and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And foreign oil operations are the beneficiaries. Many top managers and scientists in PDVSA's research and development unit moved to Canada after the 2003 strike.

Backed Into a Corner

Rarely has there been such a show of unanimity in Latin America. Last week, in response to a new agreement between Washington and Bogotá that grants U.S. access to seven military bases in Colombia, almost every member of UNASUR—the South American group that some would like to replace the Organization of American States (perhaps because it excludes the U.S., Mexico, and Canada)—used a summit meeting to lambaste U.S. President Barack Obama and Colombian President Álvaro Uribe.

Some did it graciously, like the leaders of Brazil and Chile; others, like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, did it stridently, as is their wont. But everyone seemed to agree there was more to the arrangement than meets the eye. Despite U.S. and Colombian insistence that the deal will be limited to drug-enforcement and antiterrorism measures, most Latin leaders see it as an attempt to increase the U.S. military presence in the region. In this they are both right and wrong.

The agreement—at least the parts that have been made public—does stick to these issues, and does not call for an increase in U.S. personnel in Colombia (currently capped at 1,400). Nor does it entail the stationing of more U.S. aircraft, weapons, or surveillance equipment than was previously at the Drug Enforcement Administration base in Manta, Ecuador. Yet therein lies the crux of the problem. When the U.S. lease on Manta expired this year, Correa shut it down. Reasonably enough, Washington sought alternatives. Colombia seemed ideal, precisely because there is already a small U.S. military presence there.

As a result, however, Colombia now finds itself in exactly the state of isolation that Chávez warned would result at the UNASUR meeting. Colombia is threatened from the east by Chávez, who not only has initiated an arms race by purchasing huge amounts of Russian planes, tanks, Kalashnikovs, and personnel carriers, but also tolerates safe havens for Colombian FARC guerrillas on his side of the border. Many experts, and the Colombian government, claim that he also provides money, weapons, training, and medical treatment to the FARC. To the southwest, Colombia faces a similar menace from Ecuador, which also supports the narco-insurgents and grants them sanctuary. And at home, Uribe faces the challenge of trying to wipe up the rebels, who are mortally wounded but remain active in many parts of the country.

Given these constraints, Uribe reacted logically by tightening his bonds with Colombia's only real ally in the hemisphere (even Mexico has been lukewarm in its support). But the result is that Uribe and Obama are now pretty much on their own in Latin America—not at all what the U.S. president had in mind when he took office and hoped to initiate a new era of relations. On the surface, it seems that neither Obama nor Uribe had much choice.

In fact, they did have options. To recapture the diplomatic initiative, Uribe could and should take a bold step and decline to seek another term as president (his tenure expires in 2010). This would place all of Latin America's populists, who are seeking to perpetuate their own power, on the defensive. Second, Uribe and Obama should stop simply reacting to Chávez's diplomatic antics, and go on the offensive by showing the region and the world exactly how Venezuela and its allies are polarizing their societies and the hemisphere, as well as constantly meddling in everybody's domestic affairs.

They should make it clear that such activities, as well as growing ties with Russia and Iran, threaten regional peace and security—because of the increasing arms race, Iran's nuclear program, and Chávez's incessant rhetorical broadsides, which risk eventually escalating beyond the verbal. Ever since 1999—under three administrations—Washington has, to one degree or another, constantly turned its military, ideological, and diplomatic cheek every time Caracas provoked it. Uribe, by contrast, has fought back and then pulled back. The time has come for maintaining a "no-drama Obama" military posture while taking the diplomatic initiative. The two countries cannot scrap their agreement, but they should not go beyond its limited military scope. Meanwhile, they should work to reduce their isolation and increase Venezuela's. Otherwise Chávez will keep dragging the region with him—and Uribe and Obama will find themselves increasingly alone.

Colombia gives nod to Uribe third term

BOGOTA (AFP) – Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has cleared a major hurdle to serving a third consecutive term, after lawmakers approved holding a referendum that would allow him to stand for re-election.

The move, which came just minutes before midnight (0500 GMT Wednesday), must still be endorsed by the Constitutional Court before a referendum can be held later this year.
The House of Representatives gave its nod in an 85-5 vote, one vote more than the minimum required, after a grueling debate that lasted more than 12 hours.

Uribe, a conservative and close US ally, has a 68 percent popularity rating in the polls and would be well positioned to become the first Colombian since the late 1800s to serve three terms as president.

"President Uribe is a person who enjoys immense popularity in the country. Everyone recognizes the work he has done and the way he has transformed Colombia," Interior Minister Fabio Valencia told RCN radio in Bogota.

First elected president in 2002, Uribe was easily reelected in 2006 after Congress amended the constitution so he could run for a second term, a move still under investigation because a lawmaker said he was bribed for his vote.

The House vote late Tuesday was the last legislative hurdle needed to holding a vote on amending the constitution so that the 57-year-old president could present himself as a candidate in the May presidential elections.

Last month, the Senate also gave the nod to a referendum on allowing Uribe to run for a third presidential term.

But opposition parties -- and even some of Uribe's political allies -- strongly opposed the change.
The two main opposition parties -- the centrist Liberal Party and the leftist Democratic Party -- charged that he was engaging in illegal maneuvers to remain in power.

"We are convinced that everything was done within the most rigorous legal manner," Valencia said. "We are very comfortable, but obviously we're awaiting the court's review."

There has been a growing trend in Latin America for incumbents to prolong their time in power through the use of referendums, notably by leftist leaders in neighboring Venezuela and Bolivia.

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in June after he tried to hold a referendum on extending term limits -- a move that the country's high court had declared illegal.

In Colombia, the plan to call the referendum has been punctuated with allegations of irregularities since it was launched in mid-2008 by the National Unity Social Party, one of six parties that make up the ruling coalition.

Uribe has not clearly indicated whether he would make a 2010 run for re-election but has repeatedly expressed his intent to ensure his policies would be continued.

Polls show he would have a large lead over potential rivals should he decide to run again.
Uribe remains popular thanks to his US-backed campaign against the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and for achieving one of the country's best economic performances in 30 years, with GDP growth of 7.52 percent in 2007.

The FARC, Latin America's oldest and largest insurgency, has been battling the Colombian government for four decades.

The opposition says Uribe's military success has come at the cost of a rise in human rights violations and that his economic strategy only benefits big business.

But he remains popular despite scandals involving extrajudicial killings by the army and the wire-tapping of rivals.

A Gallup survey conducted in July found that 76 percent of those Colombians willing to vote in the referendum were in favor of the proposal.