Katie Mendel
Executive Assistant, Event & Membership Coordinator
Originally from Illinois, Katie has been living in Colorado since 1992.  She has been married since 1994 and has an 11-year old daughter, Colette. She joined the FACC in August 2010. Previous occupations include working for a non-profit organization and a chamber of commerce.  Katie is responsible for planning and marketing all FACC events, as well as maintaining the FACC & CORA websites and providing support to Sara as needed. Katie was a dual major in French & International Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is excited to be putting all her studies and experience to work at the FACC.

Omar Soubra, FACC President
Director, Marketing Communications and Techno-Marketing Innovation Manager, Trimble Navigation
Omar, a French native, has been developing a team of professional marketers in different parts of the world. He has been with Trimble Navigation, the leader in positioning solutions, for over 13 years, in various roles, from European Sales manager, to Portfolio/Market Manager. Omar holds an engineering degree in LASER and Photonics from Polytech Orléans, France, a Bachelor in Engineering, Electronics and Electricity from the University of Dundee, Scotland and a Master of Art in Sales and Marketing from the Chamber of Commerce of Versailles/Yvelines, France. Full details on his career is available on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/omarsoubra. In addition to his marketing communications responsibilities, Omar is an innovator at heart and holds several patents that have been developed and used in current products and solutions. Omar has been living in Colorado since January 2005.

Benoit Guin, FACC Chairman of the Board
Principal, Amelie Company
Benoît is one of the founding members of the French-American Chamber of Commerce. He has 21 years of international agency experience in marketing and advertising services, starting his career in the most prestigious advertising agencies in Paris including Eurocom and DMB&B. In 2002, he founded Amélie Company, offering advertising and marketing services to French businesses as well as US companies.

Bob Snyder, FACC Treasurer
Immediate Past President
Partner (retired) with Ernst & Young LLP. Experience included 8 years in France. Served in New York as National Director, International Inbound Investor Services for Ernst & Young in the U.S. Founder and President for 10 years, French-American Chamber of Commerce in Philadelphia. Served in a leadership role in numerous professional and civic organizations.

Susan Brushaber, FACC Secretary
Attorney at law, Law Office of Susan J. Brushaber
Admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey and Colorado, Susan Brushaber advises foreign and domestic clients on a wide range of legal issues, primarily in the area of Intellectual Property Law. She also advises clients on general corporate and commercial matters, especially in connection with the formation and management of foreign subsidiaries, strategic relationships, outsourcing and product distribution, procurement and supply.

Vera Divenyi
State Tax Manager, Hein & Associates LLP
Vera has over 10 years of public accounting experience and serves as a Tax Manager in the Denver office of HEIN & ASSOCIATES LLP . She specializes in state and local taxes, including income franchise, sales and use, and credits and incentives. She is also experienced with tax planning and restructuring issues. Vera is currently a member of the Colorado Administration of Municipal Tax Auditors (CAMTA), Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry (CACI) Tax Council, and Colorado Software Industry Association (CSIA). Prior to joining HEIN, she was a State and Local Tax Manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP.

Virginie Ganivet
Immediate Past Executive Director
Virginie, a French native, moved to the US in 2000 with her husband and her three boys. Virginie was the Executive Director of the FACC from 2004-2011 and the Executive Director of CORA (Colorado Rhone-Alpes Economic Development Partnership) from 2009-2011.  Before transferring to the U.S., Virginie worked for 10 years in the field of high-tech product marketing as Marketing and Communications Manager for Arche Group Siemens, and prior to that as Product Manager for Cabletron Systems. She holds a degree in Mathematics and Physics and graduated from the Computer Sciences, Electronics and Engineering School of Paris.

Jean-Marc Guillard
Chief Operating Officer - Spatial
Jean-Marc joined Spatial from Spatial's parent company, Dassault Systèmes. Jean-Marc is responsible for company strategy and all of Spatial's business operations, including sales, marketing, services, development and finance. He has 20 years of experience within Dassault Systèmes development, professional services and information systems organizations. Early in his career, Jean-Marc worked as a software engineer, developing surface algorithms and geometry operators for CATIA v4.

Jeff Richards
Honorary Consul of France
Attorney, Anstine, Hill, Richards & Simpson 
Jeff is the Honorary Consul of France in Colorado. Prior to settling in Denver, Jeff studied and worked in France. He has been active in the French Community in Colorado since the 1980s and is past president of the Alliance Française de Denver. Jeff began his legal career in Washington, D.C. and is currently a partner with the law firm of Anstine, Hill, Richards & Simpson, where he specializes in commercial, business and insurance litigation for both French and American clients.

Edith Samouillet
President, Turning points
Edith Samouillet is the President and founder of Turning points, LLC. Her speciality areas are Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, and Team building, which she offers in both in English and French. Her interest in the French American Chamber of Commerce is not only because she is a French citizen, but because of her international background and the fact that she comes from the Rhône-Alpes region where she still has a significant business network. For the majority of her international career, she has been based in Lyon.

Brad Whittle
Senior Vice President, Veolia Transportation
Brad Whittle has over 20 years of management and financial experience in both the private sector and public accounting.  Brad joined Colorado Cab Company as President in 2000, and is currently Senior Vice President for Veolia Transportation, a division of Paris based Veolia Environnement.  Veolia Transportation is the largest multi-modal transportation company in North America.  Brad oversees taxi, paratransit, SuperShuttle and ExecuCar operations for Veolia in Colorado and the Kansas City area.  In addition, Brad is a member of the Veolia acquisition team.

Susan Engeman
Former FACC President

Honorary Consul of France Emeritus

Frieda Sanidas Leason