Updates on Doing Business in France

Barnes & Thornburg is pleased to invite you to an event featuring new French Consul General Guillaume Lacroix; Nadeschda Musshafe, the Head of the Investment division at Business France’s Chicago office; and Timo Rehbock, chair of Barnes & Thornburg’s European Practice Group. The speakers will cover a variety of topics and recent changes in France, including:

• France’s new labor reform law, which is designed to increase France’s competitiveness for foreign investors
• The new French Tech Visa program, a streamlined procedure for international technology talent to obtain residency and work authorization
• The world’s largest startup incubator, Station F in Paris, which also houses accelerators for bigger companies like Facebook
• Considerations for U.S. companies doing business in France

Location: 11 S. Meridian Street, Indianapolis, IN 46204
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Registration: 11:30 a.m. (Eastern)
Lunch: 12:00p.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Program: 12:30p.m. - 2:10 p.m.

Speakers

Guillaume Lacroix, Consul General of France in Chicago
Guillaume Lacroix became Consul General of France in Chicago on August 29, 2017. He holds diplomas from Institut d’études politiques de Paris and Université Panthéon-Assas. He speaks Swahili, a language he studied at Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris and in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He started his diplomatic career in 1997. He was assigned to the Department of African and Indian Ocean Affairs in Paris, then to the French Embassy in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and to the French Embassy in Washington. He was also posted in two other diplomatic institutions: at the U.S. State Department as part of the Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellow program and at the European External Action Service in Brussels. From 2013 until 2017, he served in the cabinets of French Foreign Affairs Ministers Laurent Fabius and Jean-Marc Ayrault as Counsellor for African Affairs.

Nadeschda Musshafen, Business France Chicago
Nadeschda Musshafen is the Head of the Investment division at the Business France, Chicago office. In this role she supervises her Business Development team that supports US-based companies with their investment projects in France. Prior to this role, Nadeschda spent seven years as a Senior Director for Foreign Direct Investments at Business France’s office in the Netherlands. During this time she connected with 700+ Dutch and international business leaders and facilitated over 150 investment projects in France.

Nadeschda began her career as a research analyst at the Business Intelligence Unit of Business France in Paris. In 2008, she was appointed Head of the Business Intelligence Team. Nadeschda holds a Master’s degree in International Business Relations from the University of Toulouse II.

Timo Rehbock, Partner, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Timo Rehbock is chair of Barnes & Thornburg’s European Practice Group. He focuses his practice on domestic and international corporate and commercial matters, which range from general commercial contracts to private equity and venture capital investments, mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and strategic alliances. He is fluent in four languages and represents a variety of clients in a diverse array of industries, including automotive, food processing, renewable energy, logistics, manufacturing, and technology.

Questions? Contact Courtney Brown at cbrown@btlaw.com or (317) 231-7312.