So who's on the junket, er, trade mission?

by Jon Ralston Thu, 07/23/2015 - 14:26

Being nosy, I wondered who were these dozens of people with Gov. Brian Sandoval on his two-weeks-plus trade mission to Ireland, England, Germany and Italy.

So I asked.

The list, according to the state, is below. Lots of economic development officials, UNLV President Len Jessup and other education officials, a Jewish Federation delegation and honorary consuls. Also along for the painful trip are water officials (Pat Mulroy and John Entsminger) and company executives from some of the governor's favorite outfits, including Switch.

(By the way, RDA is regional develolmnent authority and COE is the Water Center of Excellence in the economic development department. During the first leg of the trip in Ireland, Sandoval announced "a partnership with IBM to bring attention to Nevada’s targeted focus on water technology and commercialization."

So who's paying?

Gubernatorial spokeswoman Mari St. Martin told me the economic development office paid for Sandoval and his staff, but that's not just taxpayer funding. A non-profit associated with the office, Success NV, also helps defray costs -- I'm told about $25,000 of $175,000. The group has disclosed its contributors through 2014. Money has been raised for this trip, and more is expected while some of the companies listed below helped pay for expenses.

Others paid for their own travel or their spouses/partners while Sandoval paid for some students to tag along. (There are a few people missing from the list below, including folks from the economic development department and their spouses (Steve Hill, the boss, is there), but this is nearly everyone, so far as I can tell.)

	Delegation List


	GOED & Governor's Office
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Brian	Sandoval	Governor	State of Nevada	Education, Trade, Mining, Economic Development, COE, Workforce	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
2	Kathleen	Sandoval	First Lady	State of Nevada	Education, Trade, Mining, Economic Development, COE, Workforce	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
3	Madeline	Sandoval	First Family	State of Nevada	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
4	James	Sandoval	First Family	State of Nevada	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
5	Marisa	Sandoval	First Family	State of Nevada	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
6	Michon	Martin	Chief Counsel	State of Nevada	Education, Trade, Mining, Economic Development, COE, Workforce	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
15	Sara	Bonakdar	International Business Manager	Governor's Office of Economic Development	Education, Trade, Mining, Economic Development, COE, Workforce	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
16	Lauren	Hawkins	Administrative Assistant	Governor's Office of Economic Development	Education, Trade, Mining, Economic Development, COE, Workforce	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
17	Karsten	Heise	Technology Commercialization Director	Governor's Office of Economic Development	Workforce	Germany

	RDA List
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Rob	Hooper	Executive Director	NNDA	Economic Development	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
2	Susan	Hooper	N/A	NNDA	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
3	Joel	Grace	VP of Marketing & Expansion	EDAWN	Economic Development	Poland

	Education
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Alan	Gertler	VP of Research	DRI	COE/Education	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
2	Dale	Erquiaga	Superintendent of Public Instruction	Nevada Department of Education	Education; K-12	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
3	Tom	Piechota	VP for Research and Econ. Dev. Division	UNLV	Education	Germany, Poland
4	Len	Jessup	President	UNLV	Education	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
5	Kristi	Stabb	Partner, Jessup	N/A	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
6	David	Jessup	Son, Jessup	N/A	N/A	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
7	Jeffrey	Thompson	Dean, College of Science	UNR	Education	England, Germany
8	Indira	Chatterje	Associate Dean, College of Engineering	UNR	Education	Ireland, England, Germany
9	Mridul	Gautam	Vice President, Research and Innovation	UNR	Education	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Italy
10	Jim	New	Dean, Technical Science	TMCC	Education	England, Germany
11	Dan	Gouker	Senior Associate Vice President, Division of Workforce, Economic Development, and Apprenticeship Studies	CSN	Education	Germany, Poland
12	Randy	Becker	Department Chair, Media Technologies	CSN	Education	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
13	Bart	Patterson	President	Nevada State College	Education	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
14	Timothy	Porter	Dean, College of Science	UNLV	Education	Ireland, England
15	Kevin	Page	Regent	NSHE	Education	Ireland

	NV COE
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Nate	Allen	Executive Director	NvCOE	COE	Ireland, England
2	Pat	Mulroy	Board Member	NvCOE	COE	Ireland, England
3	Dave	Johnson	Deputy GM	SNWA	COE	Ireland, England
4	Kevin	Fisher	Director of Water Quality and Treatment	SNWA	COE	Ireland, England
5	Stephen	Wells	President	DRI	COE	Ireland
6	Kumud	Acharya	Sr. Director CERM Research	DRI	COE	Ireland, England
7	John	Entsminger	General Manager	SNWA	COE	Ireland, England
	GOED Board
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Jay	Barrett	President	The JABarrett Company	TBD	Ireland, Germany
2	Laura	Barrett	N/A	N/A	N/A	Ireland, Germany

	NCOT
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Claudia	Vecchio	Executive Director	NCOT	Tourism	England, Germany
2	Larry	Friedman	Chief Deputy	NCOT	Tourism	England, Germany

	LVCVA
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Chris	Meyer	Vice President, Global Business Sales	LVCVA	Tourism, Global Business District	Germany, Poland

	Cultural
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Karin	Sporn	President & CEO	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland
2	Rabbi	Schudrich	Rabbi	Warsaw	Cultural	Poland
3	Stephen	Kollins	Member	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland
4	Doug	Unger	Member	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland
5	Henry	Kromberg	Member	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland
6	Stewart	Blumenfeld	Member	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland
7	Karin	Sporn	Member	The Jewish Federation	Cultural	Poland

	Honorary Consuls
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	John	Petkus	Honorary Consul	Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Las Vegas	N/A	Poland
2	Terry	Murphy	Honorary Consul	Ireland	N/A	Ireland


	Companies
	First	Last	Title	Company	Areas of Focus/Objectives	Countries
1	Mike	Jackson	CEO	Micromanipulator	RDA Track	Germany & Poland
2	Kaushal	Chokshi	CEO	Scaale Capital	RDA Track	Ireland, England, Germany, Poland
3	Neil	Roth	CEO	Xtreme Green	RDA Track	Poland
4	Gerd	Poppinga	President	Weinberg Machining	Workforce Development	Germany
5	Sven	Klatt	GM	Weinberg Machining	Workforce Development	Germany
6	Alex	Carter	VP of Manufacturing	Click-Bond	Workforce Development	Germany
7	Larry	Harvey	Director of Human Resources	Click-Bond	Workforce Development	Germany
8	Mike	Moore	CEO	Rust Bullet	RDA Track	Poland
9	Kristi	Overgaard	EVP of Brand & Design	Switch	RDA Track	Ireland, Germany, Poland
10	Adam	Kramer	VP of Strategy	Switch	RDA Track	Ireland, Germany, Poland
11	Rob	Robinson	Chief Operating Officer	Water Sharks Systems, Inc.	RDA Track	Poland

So who's on the junket, er, trade mission?

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