To Whom It May Concern:

I met Mr. Alejandro Sucre at the Lagunita Country Club, where we both are members, about 15 years ago. I was also a good friend of his father Alfredo Sucre for many years, until his death. While I was President of Ted Bates International (in change of the Latin American region), in 1990, Mr. Sucre introduced his newly created firm to me and explained the innovative services it would provide to many Venezuelan companies. Mr. Sucre's new professional company would provide, along with a talented team of marketing people from Procter and Gamble, turnaround management services targeted towards companies that were left unattended from suffering a difficult macroeconomic environment and internal mismanagement.

After perceiving how relevant the turnaround management services could become for a key client of our advertising company, I recommended Mr. Sucre's company to Ponce & Benzo (Pharmaceutical and OTC Products Company). Mr. Sucre's team performed major business and marketing retooling for this 75-year-old pharmaceutical and OTC products company, with distribution and brand management ties to U.S. companies such as Procter and Gamble, Alka Selzer, Tampax, KIKKOMAN, and others. Analyzed positioning and competitors for each product. Formulated new marketing campaigns, new packaging, and new promotional strategies. Recruited new marketing and sales personnel. Launched seven new products, after performing in-depth cost/benefit analyses for each. Designed production schedules, and optimized scheduling and processes. Increased sales growth by very important percentages (doable digit %) during the first year, and raised shareholder rate of return 42.9%. His team's work was so effective that Ponce & Benzo's President, Mr. José Antonio Ponce, recommended his turnaround management firm to his father in law industrial company. I also hired his team to do work for my own company after I saw the results they generated for my clients.

During the last 2 years, my advertising firm has worked very successfully turning around his family business: the Caracas Teleport Building, which was awarded the Intelligent Building 2000 by the World Teleport Association.

From a professional perspective, I trust Mr. Sucre’s ability to develop strategies and gather the right team to execute a challenging turnaround project.

Please contact me directly if you have further questions at ghersy@ghersy.com.ve
Sincerely,

Gustavo Ghersy
President
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