EPISODE 43: FRANK ORLOWSKI, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER AT ATION ADVISORY GROUP

Episode’s transcript

Julio Martinez: 0:00

Welcome to the Latin MedTech Leaders podcast, a conversation with MedTech leaders who have succeeded or plan to succeed in Latin America. Please subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast. Amazon Music is teacher Tune in iHeart Radio, Pandora or Deezer . Welcome back to the La MedTech Leaders Podcast. Today our guest is Frank Orlowski . Hey Frank, it is good to have you here in the show today. Hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. <laugh>

Frank Orlowski: 0:31

Perfectly correct. And thank you for having me, Julio.

Julio Martinez: 0:33

Awesome, awesome Frank. Alright , listeners, Frank is the founder and president of Asian Ambassador Group where he's helping global life science companies commercialize their product services or technologies along with obtaining dilutive and non-dilutive funding. Right.

Frank Orlowski: 0:50

People need to raise money. Sure. Especially in life science, right? <laugh> ?

Julio Martinez: 0:53

Yes, absolutely. <laugh> as a retired Pfizer executive, Frank worked for 25 years, very impressive in positions of increased responsibilities in finance, strategy and operations. Frank led the supply chain and finance functions across 35 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, where he supported nine countries and also the Middle East. Frank currently sits on the area board of the American Cancer Society and he holds a BS in accounting from Providence College and an MBA in international finance at NYU Eastern Journey School of Business. So Frank, it is really, really a privilege to have you here today. Thank

Frank Orlowski: 1:38

You. Hug . It was a pleasure to

Julio Martinez: 1:39

Be here. Awesome, awesome. Alright , Frank, let start with your journey to Latin America. How do you get involved in the region personally and professionally?

Frank Orlowski: 1:47

Sure. Yeah. So when I started Pfizer, again, I hope I look a little young to retire. So I started when I was 21 years old , uh, right outta school. And uh, they basically in the , in the finance, corporate finance world, they said, we're gonna put you financially responsible , uh, for an area called all other. And at Pfizer at the time, it was all about Europe, all about the us Viagra just was launched and that's where all the money came from and all the revenue. But I quickly realized that all other was emerging markets. And emerging markets included Latin America, where I was fortunate to lead the finance teams and then really help Pfizer grow from the ground up in the countries that I supported. So we literally went into a country where we were maybe using distributors or third parties and we put Pfizer oval in that market. And again, we started from the ground up. We built manufacturing, distribution, sales and everything in that market. So it was extremely rewarding for me to be able to do that in parts of the world like Latin America.

Julio Martinez: 2:44

Fantastic, Frank. Alright , so let's talk about trends in Latin America. Frank. What major epidemiological economic and political trends or social trends you see happening in the region that are relevant to our discussion today?

Frank Orlowski: 2:59

Sure, absolutely. I guess on a positive side, and some people may disagree with me, the influx of investment from China I think is a positive thing because I mean, the people don't realize this. For example, in Brazil, the Chinese and the Brazilians have a lot in common. If you've ever stood in line in Brazil, it's the same way to stand in line in China. And they're realizing that that's a part of the world that has, you know, you know, relatively good education. They're trying to grow in the , in the med tech space. Um, so they want to be in the forefront of that. So I think the positive side, you're seeing the investments from the outside, like China, you're also seeing trends where when I first started, the governments in Latin America were happy to have you just put in secondary packaging or really non-sophisticated types of, you know, labeling or creating boxes. Now the governments are demanding high tech manufacturing. So if companies like Pfizer want access to revenue or tenders to sell their med tech or life science wares, they have to put in real infrastructure that's gonna create high tech jobs. And on the negative side, you hear about the corruption. I'll be brutally honest with you, you know, Pfizer's an American company. The challenge I have as a finance lead in that part of the world and others is, is that, look, I live in New York City, so every day if I don't give my doorman , you know, money, if I don't give the guy that parks the guard money, if I don't give you know, money, I can't get anything done. But yet in Pfizer, if you do that, it violates SCPA and SEC regulations and it makes things very, very difficult. So Pfizer was able to succeed by being compliant and doing it in creative ways, but it tends to be , uh, that that could be a challenge because it's part of the culture. And I'm not saying bribery or, or tipping is a bad word, it's just part of that culture. Yeah,

Julio Martinez: 4:47

Yeah. Alright , Frank, what's your overall perception about Latin America as a place to conduct clinical research or to sell medical technologies in general?

Frank Orlowski: 5:00

I think it's underappreciated quite honestly. Like, I mean, if you look at Envisa , which is, it literally is more sophisticated and more advanced than the FDA , it is the gold standard. We would always say that if you can get something approved in Brazil or Columbia, you can get it approved anywhere. So I don't think people appreciate that about that part of the world. I also, just so you know, I mean Pfizer's first production of Prevnar, which is the pneumonia vaccine outside of Europe and the US was in Argentina. It was a partnership with the government in Argentina. And the way that Argentina government approached it in a very sophisticated way was, look, if you fill the vaccine here, we will give you access to government tenders to distribute the product. And I think you're seeing a lot more governments in a very sophisticated way doing that across Latin America. And that's gonna attract more investment. And the people are, I would say, even more educated than most other parts of the world in that life science space. Yeah.

Julio Martinez: 6:03

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Awesome. Very good. I'm glad you have this positive , uh, perception of the region. Alright , Frank, let's get in some more detail here. Let's talk about the countries where you've had experience in Latin America. In your bio , uh, it mentions , uh, nine countries. Uh , can you give us some more details on that?

Frank Orlowski: 6:20

Yeah, I guess for me, I mean, to be honest with you, when I first started , uh, Venezuela was an extremely profitable market for Pfizer. We built that up because they allowed us to, we built a manufacturing facility in Valencia, which was doing some blending and filling and pretty sophisticated manufacturing at the time. And the government purchased our drugs at high margins. And it was a , an amazing partnership. And uh, again, it was fi one of Pfizer's most profitable markets, unfortunately, given geopolitical issues, you know, tied to oil. It became a challenge for Pfizer. But you know, just the people and the drive of Venezuela was made probably the biggest impact in Latin America for me personally. And I enjoyed my time there for sure, you know, working with it. And , uh, you know , we had to deal with unions, we had to deal, but we made it happen. We made it work, we persevered, we worked with the people. Brazil became Pfizer's most important markets where we had , uh, three manufacturing facilities , uh, consumer healthcare , and then we had also an animal health facility , uh, where we did manufacturing and also human health. So we , we had in manufacturing over a thousand people. And again, I enjoyed the people, the sense of belonging, the sense of including me. It , it wasn't, oh my gosh, here comes these guys from New York headquarters and Pfizer and they're, they're here to run the show. No way. It was a real partnership and the family is important and you were entering their homes. And to me that's an incredible part about Latin America that people don't realize. Yeah.

Julio Martinez: 7:46

So you, you're being a lover, the place in Latin America, I mean, pretty much all countries,

Frank Orlowski: 7:51

I , I mean, absolutely. It was a family to me. They , my mo biggest compliment I got was from uh , one of the Tesa staff in Brazil. Her name was , uh, Adriana. And she said to me, she's like, I think you in another life, you were from Latin America. Your last name wasn't Orlowski , you weren't Polish and German and Italian. You were, you were a Latin America. 'cause you , you have that feeling. And uh, you know , it was very special for me. And , uh, I think I shared this with you earlier when I retired 'cause I did support them for 22 years. They , they gave me this book which was , you know, Latin America memories and it , and it's filled with all the times I spent with my friends and various things and , and everything I did in, in Latin America across all of the countries. And this to me is only in Latin America would this happen. And that's why it's such a special place in my heart.

Julio Martinez: 8:36

Wow. Very good. Very good, Frank. Alright , so moving along here Frank, let's talk about , um, regulatory approvals in these countries. I mean , what's been your experience here?

Frank Orlowski: 8:46

It's difficult. And do people think it's because of the things have to be done on the up and up? They require strict regulations with additional testing and stability that has to be done in the country. And I always said if you could get something approved in Brazil within Visa and secondly Columbia , you can get it approved in anywhere else in the world. So they're very strict re people think, oh, it's not strict, very, very strict regulations. And that includes Mexico. Mexico was Pfizer's most complicated market, I would say it's because , uh, pharmaceuticals are treated like consumer products in a lot of cases where you can go into a pharmacy and get things without a prescription. So we had more SKUs that we sold in pharmaceuticals in Mexico than anywhere else in the world. Wow.

Julio Martinez: 9:29

Why is that?

Frank Orlowski: 9:31

There were so many different brands. There were so many different things penetrating the market and unique brands for that market. So little story , uh, in Mexico we had a drug called Viagra jet and it was the only chewable Viagra in the entire world. And it was only for the Mexican market. And it was developed purely for the Mexican market. And it was very fast acting . 'cause you would chew it and it would immerse itself through the lining of your gums and it would be fast acting . So, you know, Latin America allows things to be put on the market in a more creative way, which is great. Ponstan is another drug. It's a drug for menstrual cramps for women. And we had a unique formulation just for Brazil for that drug.

Julio Martinez: 10:15

Huh , interesting. Very much interesting. I mean, I guess that's a clear example of , uh, you plan globally but you execute locally, right?

Frank Orlowski: 10:24

Yeah, absolutely. In Latin America you have to do that. And Pfizer did very well by , by doing that across con .

Julio Martinez: 10:32

Alright , so what about nightmares trying to get products approved? I mean, do you have any bad stories or success stories?

Frank Orlowski: 10:39

Well, a lot of times the challenge we would have is, is that when we had a product that required cold chain storage, special handling , uh, we often had problems. And , and it could be the active has to be a certain temperature and then it has to be filled locally in, in Brazil based on requirements or in Argentina or what have you. Because of the, to be brutal , honest , with lack of cold chain refrigeration in Latin America, that often became a problem, especially when we were importing and it was in customs, for example, in Brazil or in Ecuador. To be able to get it out of customs in an expedited matter that's following compliance and controls was oftentimes very difficult. So we had to write off a lot of materials that were just spoiled because of the heat.

Julio Martinez: 11:24

Yeah, yeah. Alright . Okay. What about distributors? I mean, how was your structure in Latin America in terms of distribution and all that? Or , and or direct forces? Uh , Salesforce

Frank Orlowski: 11:36

Depended on the market. So in Mexico we had a very sophisticated warehouse structure that we did on our own. It was a giant automated warehouse. And then from that warehouse in Luca or or Santa Fe, we were then distributing across the country using our own network in markets like Argentina where we did have local manufacturing, we would rely on a third party distributor to manage it, it for us. So it's country specific, let's put it that way. But that presents its own set of challenges, right? You have some corruption issues and whatnot sometimes, and pallets of pharmaceuticals may disappear, but for the most part we found very successful partners or we did it ourselves. Mm-Hmm,

Julio Martinez: 12:17

<affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah , sure. Alright . What about doing due diligence on these distributors? Where you at , uh, distributors? I mean, do you guys have a specific process? Where are your thoughts on choosing distributors?

Frank Orlowski: 12:31

Absolutely. Because of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Pfizer being an American publicly traded company, we had a very, very stringent due diligence where we had to not only audit the company, we had to audit their customers. So we demanded a list of every single customers that that distributor had in that country and we would perform audits on those customers to see how they were integrating or operating with that distributor. And if there was any irregularities, we wouldn't do business with that distributor. So it was a very formal checklist that we would have to go through. And mainly it was on the service reliability and compliance and controls.

Julio Martinez: 13:10

Well, you guys were Pfizer . I mean, you can demand <laugh> documents, you can demand the shooters , provide that information.

Frank Orlowski: 13:18

Yeah. And , and that you bring up a good point, Julio. It's tough for the smaller companies that are trying to do business and enter Latin America. And I think that's where Latin America could do a little bit better, is embracing those more entrepreneurial , uh, one product companies that maybe have a product that hasn't been fully approved yet, but they want to enter it into a a given market. They're starting to do that. They're starting to have incubators and attracting investment for smaller companies. I'm seeing that across Latin America as a trend, but that's an area where they can be some improvement.

Julio Martinez: 13:51

Yeah, sure. All right . So what are your thoughts on importing products and nationalizing products into Latin America? Any good or bad experiences there?

Frank Orlowski: 14:01

I think if I'm putting myself in the shoes of Latin America, they are being much more wise and sophisticated and telling big pharma, you know, similar to the Argentina example, no , don't make it in Ireland or Singapore. You need to make it here in Colombia or in Ecuador. You need to make it here and create the jobs, create the infrastructure, then we're gonna sell it and we'll be your backer. We'll , we'll even buy your drugs as a government purchaser. We'll give you tax rebates, we'll give you incentives, but please create the jobs and the technology here. Whereas the beginning of my career now , that wasn't the case. You didn't need to build a manufacturing plant. You could just import everything and use third party distributors like I mentioned. And then the second trend was mine . Build a factory here, create jobs, manufacture, distribute. But it wasn't sophisticated manufacturing, it was just packaging, labeling secondary. And now the trend is they want the more sophisticated technology and manufacturing in the country.

Julio Martinez: 15:01

Yeah. Yeah. It looks like you, even though you're retired ly retired , you're still keeping up with the trends , uh, of Latin America.

Frank Orlowski: 15:08

In my consulting world with uh , Asian Advisory Group, I have a number of clients that I support , uh, in Latin America. A lot of them are Chinese clients that want to localize in Brazil, but they don't know how. Or I have a German , uh, pharmaceutical client that has a certain hormonal product that they want to distribute across Chile, but they don't know how to do it. They don't know how to navigate Chile. And that's a , a lot of the work I do to help these companies find a trusted partner through my network at Pfizer. 'cause as you know, Julio is a Latin America. When you become friends with someone from Latin America, they're your friends for life, right? They're, they're like your Romano or mother , your brother. And it's not easy. You don't get that on day one. You have to earn it, but once you get it, you got it.

Julio Martinez: 15:53

That's true. That's true. It's really key to have a strong personal relationships in Latin America. They really wanna get to know you first before they do business with you.

Frank Orlowski: 16:01

And that's a thing that a lot of Americans don't get. You know, they want to go in and they immediately say, alright . I always said, Julio and all the people that I supported in Latin America, there are three things in life. And all the teams that I had, I I managed a team of over a hundred finance professionals in , in Latin America. I said, it's your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, and then your job. And if your job ever gets above your relationship with a higher power and your relationship with your family, then you have to answer to me because that's a problem.

Julio Martinez: 16:33

Good point, <laugh> . Very good point. This is , uh, wise point, actually, that's really the word I was looking for. Yeah .

Frank Orlowski: 16:41

And it resonated. I mean, it resonates around the world, but it particularly resonated in Latin America because of the family is so important that family network is so important across Latin America. And I admire that. And I wish the rest of the world, and this is just me personally, would emulate that.

Julio Martinez: 16:58

Yeah, yeah. You know, I see that a lot in conference calls and , and meetings or video meetings now a day because of the COVID-19 crisis, if you have a , a meeting with somebody from Latin America, you start the meeting just talking about stuff, about life, about family, about soccer, about something <laugh> , about the news <laugh> you , you establish a report with a person. Whereas in the US you start a meeting with the gringo . And I mean, they may talk about the weather and for three seconds and then they jump right into the topic of the conversation. <laugh>.

Frank Orlowski: 17:37

And I would love that we, I'd bring in some less, you know, some of the Pfizer executives into meetings in Latin America. 'cause I needed them to come down and we would have conversations around the table and they would look at me like, why are we talking about this? This is amazing that we're talking about things that may be on the fringe of, of not being politically correct in the , in the us . And, and , uh, it was very, very interesting. But , uh, you know, I I have to say one thing, Julio , and it came into my head when we were talking about family. I was invited to be part of the Pfizer Latin American community club that they had. And it was about a hundred Latin American professionals around the world. And they would bring in executive speakers. Pfizer has a board member that is Latin America. There were some other executives. And one of the things they said that they need to work on is because Latin Americans loved their family so much, which is such an amazing thing. Sometimes it holds them back in their career so that they don't get to that level of a president or CEO because if something happens with the family, you take care of them right away. And I admire that. I think that's wonderful. But they were saying themselves that they think that's why there's not as many executives at that top level that are Latin America because the focus is not on , on work family first. I could see that as a pro and a con, but uh , to me family's the most important. So yeah.

Julio Martinez: 18:57

Yeah. It has to be a balance. But , uh, you're absolutely right. It probably comes from our Mediterranean heritage , uh, Italy , um, Spain , uh, France, I mean the Mediterranean, the Arabs, they have different set of values. Anglo-Saxons are very practical. They're wanna get down to business as soon as possible. Uh , well, they're the best in the world. I mean, I love the American culture in that regard. I mean, the best sales and marketing practices come from the US <laugh>.

Frank Orlowski: 19:27

No . Right. And , and , and Julio , I just want to , you mentioned about my experiences. One interesting experience I had was in Chile. Chile is, in my opinion, very different than other markets in Latin America. The first time I went to Chile, you know, I expected to have that same feeling like Brazil or Venezuela, where, you know, it's joyful and it's not. And I, I remember I, I made a comment to a coworker about that and their simple response was, Frank, it takes a generation. And I said, well, what do you mean? It takes a generation? They're like, if you understood the history of Chile and how repressed they were, the fascism, the violence that only happened within the past 20, 30 years, it's gonna take an entire generation to remove that ill repressed feeling. And I thought that was an amazing insight that I didn't appreciate until they'd mentioned it.

Julio Martinez: 20:22

The same thing happening in Spain with Franco in a way. So, yeah. Makes sense. Alright , uh, Frank, moving along here, let's talk about corruption in Latin America. I mean , when I hear your thoughts on this , you kind of touch on upon that , uh, at the beginning of the call. But what's your experience? Uh , bribery, corruption,

Frank Orlowski: 20:40

You know, it's not something that's isolated just to Latin America. It's all over the world. If you don't a negotiate 'cause sometimes Americans will just see a cost on the sticker and they pay for it. And that's offensive in many parts of the world to not negotiate, including in Latin America. It's part of the culture, it's part of . So Americans don't realize that. But the corruption is, as I mentioned at the beginning, you know, we bribe and tip all day long and to get contractors and buildings and things like that. But the Pfizer and American companies are under very, very strict laws with the SEC and with FCPA to try to level the playing field. So it makes very, very difficult. And I , I think the challenge is in Latin America is a lot of times the government officials, the customs officials, the ones that are approving the drugs, they don't realize that US companies are handcuffed when it comes to bribery and corruption. So the way way we've found to get around that is we've done training programs across Latin America, across the Middle East and across Asia, where we educate the customs officials or government officials to say in a case study format, you know, real world examples of, this is an example where maybe you would bribe in Latin America or in Asia, but we're just not able to do this because of that CPA. And you know what, they appreciated that. They then now understand the rules of engagement in the US and that transparency made for much better engagement and it actually helped us to get approvals on a , in a , in a faster time to get things distributed, to get things through customs because they just understood that the rules were different in the us .

Julio Martinez: 22:13

Okay. Very good. Very good. Okay, Frank, switching topics a little bit and going back to what you were , um, discussing about the different countries. You also mentioned about smaller companies, and those are typically the companies I deal with in my daily , uh, activities. They sometimes struggle to really understand Latin America to understand the different countries, the priorities on how to advocate resources and money and, and distributors and all that. What would you recommend in terms of market access? What would be your top countries and why?

Frank Orlowski: 22:50

No, I think that's a great question. 'cause market access is one of the things I'm, I'm helping with within Nation Advisory Group. And it's critical. And first of all, you need to find a , a trusted partner. You need to find, and it can't be a partner that's in the US that knows somebody in Latin America or is in Canada, but has business in Latin America different . You need that face to face with that partner. You have to establish that trusted partner early on in any engagement. And again, it , it shouldn't be a, you know, a a chop shop of someone that has like, you know, 99 other products that they're gonna try to bring into the country and sell. You really need to, to do your diligence, go on LinkedIn, go to your contacts and find that one trusted partner that will help you in that country. It doesn't have to be in your industry, it could be in another industry. But as you know, with the network in Latin America, which is so strong, people know every , oh, I got a guy, I could call this person. I gotta , but you gotta find that one trusted partner first. And that's, I think, a lesson learned that I had with Pfizer where we were going first with a company in, in Panama and they were the conduit to get us into all those countries in, in Latin America and everything had to go through that Panama City partner and distributor. And then we said, no , that this just isn't right. We can do this ourselves. Let's find the people ourselves. And to me that's the, you know, I know it's harder, right? Because if you're a , you know , have the means or the size of a Pfizer to get into that country, it'll take a little bit longer. But you can still do it. Go into LinkedIn, do networking, go on to Google and, and meet and find people that could make those personal introductions in that specific country. So to me that's the biggest lesson learned and most important thing you need to do.

Julio Martinez: 24:32

Agree. Yes, totally true . Right. And in terms of naming countries, what country would be your top priorities in Latin America for you or the CEO of a pharmaceutical or medical device company?

Frank Orlowski: 24:44

I think Brazil has got the most, you know, again, 'cause of the , there's Chinese investment, there's a lot of entrepreneurial spirit there. They're setting up these hubs of technology, these research centers in the US We have things called J Labs or think tanks or other types of organizations that bring in incubators. There's a lot of that going on in, in Brazil. So to me that would be the first market that I would harness for that. And I know I mentioned Panama as a conduit, but even in Panama there are definitely some incubator labs that are going on that are seeding startups in those markets. Another good resource and Pfizer's used them is the Chamber of commerce in those markets. 'cause they can open the door for you with, with trusted

Julio Martinez: 25:28

Partners. Okay . Are you familiar with the Pacific Alliance and what's going on?

Frank Orlowski: 25:32

Absolutely. Thank you for bringing up . That's an excellent, in fact, we had a meeting that we attended in Costa Rica , uh, with the Pacific Alliance and that's an important trade partner to have. And if you can dial into that and it's not that hard to dial in , you don't have to be a Pfizer to , to get into that. Um, but that'll really help to, to open the doors for for sure.

Julio Martinez: 25:54

Okay. Alright . Alright . Um, we're towards the end of the show , um, Frank here , but , uh, PAC <laugh> . So let's talk about, what do you think about Latin America as a place to do business? I mean, is it a fun place? It a boring place. I mean,

Frank Orlowski: 26:10

I love it. Oh my God, it is . Every time I , I traveled again all over the world and every time I came back from Latin America, my wife would notice, wow, you're full of energy. 'cause people are just so much fun. They're personal. And we wouldn't be at the end of the day, go back to the hotel room, do room service. No way. It was, you know, come to my house, let's do a barbecue. And in Argentina when we did negotiations, my boss and I, what we would do is we would pick topics to do during the day and then we'd have a handful of very important topics that we made sure we did over a drink or at the barbecue or at the family's house. And it was amazing. And I that sense of family and every single Pfizer facility in Latin America would always have a social center. You know, it wasn't some elaborate thing, but it was an area for picnic tables and barbecue. And that didn't happen in the factories in Europe or in, in the us but it was that sense of family. And then during those times, the people on the management team would bring their wives and their spouses and their family. And honestly speaking, Julio, the friends I have today that I still call upon, most of them in Pfizer are from Latin America. And I speak to them on a regular basis and we still partner and do business together. And so that, that is, from that standpoint, it's my favorite market and I have not met anybody that has disagreed with me. Once they get engaged into Latin America and they get beyond the, oh , the safety issues in Brazil or once you get past that, all bets are off and it's phenomenal. I can't say enough about Latin

Julio Martinez: 27:46

America , which is not that bad. I mean, the safety issue is not bad if you're with somebody local and , and , uh

Frank Orlowski: 27:52

Exactly. And you don't flaunt things and you don't, you behave normally. And it's, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Yeah .

Julio Martinez: 27:58

Yeah. Alright, so before we uh , end the show , uh, Paco , there's a question I always ask my guests here. If you had in front of you the CEO of a small biotech or pharma or medical device company in the US or Europe just contemplating doing something in Latin America research or , uh, selling their innovations, what would you say, what would be your words of wisdom to that? Uh , CEO

Frank Orlowski: 28:28

Amazing place to do business? To, to do your homework, set up infrastructure yourself. Find the , the person directly. I would not recommend using a third party or a distributor because you're maybe afraid to localize or go in . Don't be afraid. You know, find the partner in each specific market that could help you. Because even though it's Latin American culture and to your point, it's could be a Spanish origin or Portuguese origin, every country is still has its own nuance and great uniqueness. And you know, soccer is the common divide as we know football in , in Latin America. But the words of wisdom would be find a partner in each individual market that is going to help you to build your business from the ground up. And don't be afraid to jump in with both feet all in, in Latin America. 'cause it'll pay dividends going down. I

Julio Martinez: 29:16

Agree. Agree. Alright , uh, Paco and , um, tell us about your company, your type of work you do , uh, with your clients and how can people get in contact with you?

Frank Orlowski: 29:27

No, I thank you. So when I, you know, after 25 years when I retired from Pfizer after traveling 80% of the time, my years in service each a certain number. I put my hand up, I said, I'm, I'm ready. And obviously at, at the time, at 46 years old, my wife was like, there's no way, way you're sitting at home. So I formed a , an advisory group called Asian Advisory Group, A-T-I-O-N as in commercialization, globalization, innovation. And what I've done is I've formed a network of Pfizer retirees and all specialties, whether it's engineering research, I've also formed with investment partners to do raises for companies that are looking for funding. And what Asian does is, is that we help to point the direction of some companies to get funding. Then we come in and we, we help them side by side to provide them support and leadership and help them to grow their company and ultimately commercialize their product in their home country. But then ultimately globally in the 35 plus countries that I have , uh, a strong network in. So we really do things from the ground up. And it's a very entrepreneurial type organization because , uh, that's what I did at Pfizer. Even though Pfizer's a gigantic company. I went into markets my entire career and from the ground up, we built out the , the organization. And that's what I'm doing now for my clients that I'm helping.

Julio Martinez: 30:46

Great value proposition , uh, Paco . Fantastic. Thank

Frank Orlowski: 30:49

You Julio.

Julio Martinez: 30:50

All right . So thank you so much

Frank Orlowski: 30:53

Perfecto , <laugh>.

Julio Martinez: 30:54

I really love the conversation. I'm sure listeners,

Frank Orlowski: 30:57

Anytime and if I could, if anything I could do to help you or your friends or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to to email me at , uh, frank@asianadvisory.com or, or look me up. And I'm , I'm always happy to help my friend.

Julio Martinez: 31:09

Fantastic. Bye-Bye. Take

Frank Orlowski: 31:12

Care, Julio. Bye-Bye . Thank you very much. Bye .