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The organizational structure of CGI is designed to be lean, efficient, and quick to respond, yet guided by the experience and skills of a well rounded group of directors. Our owners will not be burdened with the cost of a large team of managers involved on a day-to-day basis, our size cannot justify this. This responsibility for and the authority to conduct our business affairs in Brazil are in the hands of the managing partner. To operate in Western Bahia's business climate, where opportunities appear and disappear daily, it is important for the manager who is actively involved daily, to have this authority.
Managing Partner: Adam Howell first began researching Brazilian agriculture in 1998 and has devoted much time and energy toward the idea of CGI long before the company was founded. Adam earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University in 1997. He first traveled to Brazil in 1998 searching for an area best suited to CGI interests. He made several more trips and extended stays in Western Bahia, learned what is now fluent Portuguese, researched land markets, learned the agronomics of the area, and studied Brazilian regulations regarding foreign investment. In February of 2000, Adam bought a 500 hectare farm in Western Bahia, which he originally rented out to a Brazilian farmer. For the 2002/03 and 2003/4 growing seasons, Adam operated the farm himself growing corn, soybeans, and sorghum while working closely with a neighbor who grows 800 hectares of cotton. This first hand experience as a foreign investor, farmer, and resident of Western Bahia will prove to be invaluable to the success of CGI.
During this time, Adam has also been actively involved in his family's farm business of Indiana, which has experienced 157% increase in gross revenues and a 150% increase in number of acres farmed under his management. Adam has implemented tracking systems, improved cost accounting, and therefore, allowed for improved capital budgeting and allocation decisions. His management experience from the family farm will also prove very valuable to CGI operations in Brazil.
Board of Directors: As the organizing entity, Howell Farms International, LLC is entitled to select five directors to serve on the board. The following people have been selected:
DAVID HOWELL – Bio to come soon
AARON HOWELL – Bio to come soon
TRAVIS PULLIAM – Bio to come soon
Agent in Brazil: JOSUE de CAMPOS FIRMINO – owns Ciel Cantabilidade, the accounting firm that our Limitada uses in Brazil. Josue also provides a majority of the legal work that we need done in Brazil. He has worked with nine different entities making foreign investment in Bahia, providing accounting services, forming Limitadas, registering foreign capital entry and exit, etcetera. He is the most qualified person in Western Bahia to provide these services to a foreign investor in real estate and/or farm production. CGI is not a learning experience for him. Perhaps the most valuable services he provides for CGI are intangible. He has over twenty years of experience in Western Bahia and is very well known. He knows more Brazilian jetinhos than our management has learned to date. Jetinho, very loosely translated, means the way around an obstacle when there does not seem to be a way. He is very willing to represent CGI and our management has built a strong trusting relationship with him.
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