Russians get tour of Chaffee Crossing

 

Leonid Mazin, Andrey Epishin, Maxim Litvinov and Evgeny Merkulov have been snooping around Arkansas and Fort Smith looking for better ways business and government may work together.

They like what they see.

The four Russians are on a U.S. tour with David Olive and Jeff Faszcza as guides. Olive and Faszcza, partners in Washington, D.C.-based Catalyst Partners, were tasked to help the Russians learn more about the economic development interaction between federal, state and local governments. Because the Russians come from a manufacturing area, they thought Arkansas and the Fort Smith area would be a good place to tour.

On Tuesday night, the Russians were treated to a barbecue dinner at Pink Flamingo’s with more than 35 area business and civic leaders. The event was hosted by Mary Ann and David McMahon Sr., with Belle Pointe Beverages.

Epishin is the chairman of the Legislative Assembly for the Tver Region. The chairman is a powerful political position, similar to a House or Senate leader in a state legislature.

Litvinov is the Mayor of Kimry, a town of more than 50,000 in a manufacturing region similar in size to the Fort Smith metro area. Kimry is located in the Tver Oblast region (similar to a U.S. state). The region is known for aeronautics and auto manufacturing. Litvinov previously served as the general director for a footwear manufacturing plant.

Mazin, the senior of the visiting group, is the director of operations strategy and business development for Hamilton Standard-Nauka. Hamilton Standard and Nauka signed a joint venture in March 1996 to manufacture environmental control systems for the global aerospace and aviation industry.

Merkulov is the CEO of JSC NPO (Joint-Stock Company, Research and Production Association) that is involved in aerospace design, construction and testing.

The Russians arrived Sunday in Memphis and toured Graceland before traveling to Little Rock to tour the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library. From Little Rock they traveled to Mt. Magazine State Park, where they stayed overnight on Monday. On Tuesday the group toured Chaffee Crossing, Hiram Walker, Baldor Electric and the Arkansas River Valley Nature Center. They also got a second taste of Elvis Presley with a visit to the Elvis Barbershop Museum at Chaffee Crossing.

“They thought it was great. They loved it,” said Whitney Yoder, vice president of program development and implementation for the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.

It wasn’t all about Rock and Roll Kings and Presidents, Olive said, noting that the Russians were impressed with the amount of industry in the Fort Smith area. He said they were especially impressed with the global connections of companies based or active in the area.

“The thing that really amazed them at Baldor was how the company has operations all over the world and they are (based) here,” Olive explained.

On Wednesday (July 28) the group is scheduled to tour Rheem, Planters and visit the Fort Smith Rotary Club. They will travel back to Little Rock to stay Wednesday night at the Peabody.

Before coming to Fort Smith, the Russians sat down with employees of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Olive said the AEDC explained how the state works with cities and regions in Arkansas to recruit and retain jobs.

“They were most interested in how the state and cities work together to do that (economic development). It doesn’t happen like that there (in Russia),” Olive said.

Mazin told The City Wire he was very impressed with Chaffee Crossing, noting that “it’s a very good example of a new industrial complex.”

However, Mazin said his biggest surprise has been the reception. Their perception was that people in the U.S. south were closed and not open to strangers.

“But I tell you now that what we see is absolutely different,” Mazin said. “I am most excited by the readiness of people to welcome us here, the openness of the people.”

Mazin, who first visited the U.S. in 1990 before the fall of the U.S.S.R., said he hopes the arrival of four Russians in Fort Smith becomes less of a novelty. He told the Tuesday night crowd that business and civic leaders in U.S. and Russia have many opportunities to work together.

“We hope not to be the last (visit), but our both great countries will improve these bonds,” Mazin said.