Longoria will represent MasterCard on the board, serving with Don Johnson from FedEx and Rafael Williamson from Chevron

Malvina Longoria

MasterCard Worldwide Vice President, Managing Counsel

WorldCity announced today that is has appointed FedEx Express’s Don Johnson to serve as one of the first three members of the Government Affairs Connections Advisory Board.

At the same time, WorldCity accounced it has appointed two other members to the Government Affairs Connections Advisory Board, Malvina Longoria of MasterCard International and Rafael Jaen Williamson of Chevron, as well as three members to the new advisory boards for the CEO Club, HR Connections and Marketing Connections.

Williamson and the other 11 board members will be responsible for overseeing the growth and projection of their specific event series, all relatively new, and in helping WorldCity create the first “Best Practices Manual” for Latin America.

“I have known Don for years and always respected his knowledge and understanding of international trade and issues related to his particular area of expertise — governments in Latin America, generally Customs-related,” said WorldCity President Ken Roberts. “From the get-go, Don has been actively engaged in Government Affairs Connections.

“I am confident he will work well with Rafael and Malvina to help us strengthen Government Affairs Connections and to help us put togther the best practices manual.”

Government Affairs Connections is held six times per year and open to anyone overseeing public policy or government affairs issues for a multinational with either South Florida operations or an interest in Latin America. The initial sponsor was the international law firm Fowler Rodriguez Valdes-Fauli; it has since been joined by Chevron.

The advisory board members for the CEO Club, which is also held six times per year for the top person at each of the roughly 1,100 multinationals in South Florida, will be Liz Alicea-Velez of Western Union, James Hogan of Medtronic, and Henry Martinez of Discovery.

As is the case with most of the board members, the three oversee Latin America and, in some cases, have additional responsibilities.

The three board members for HR Connections, which is open to human resources directors at South Florida multinationals, are Zulay Ciffoni of Canon, Laura Quevedo of Diageo and Carlos Hernandez of American Airlines.

The three board members for Marketing Connections, open to top marketing officials with the South Florida-based multinationals, are Cesar Sebrosa of Ole/A&E, Roberto Ricossa or Nortel and Bertha Merikanskas of LAN. Both meet every other month, as do the CEO Club and Government Affairs Connections.