Info:

This 1.5 hour panel will start with an introduction from each of the participants and their experience of the fashion industry. Then a Q & A format will continue for the remainder of the panel. Afterwards there will be the opportunity for networking. Participants include:

Nancy Ploeger is the President of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Enhancing New York City's economic growth and advocacy for small businesses has been Nancy's goal for the past 14 years. Nancy has developed MCC's membership from 250+ to over 1400,launched a variety of economic development initiatives and committees and established the Chamber's relationships with officials at all levels of government. This powerful network contributes and supports to build the Chamber into a small business advocating force with expanded influence across the globe. For the past few years, the Chamber has become a catalyst that has created and strengthened a global SME network including India, Spain, South Africa, Korea and Turkey etc. to build up SMEs' global expansion capacity and bring about sustained competitive growth. In order to develop MCC's international presence, Nancy created the MCC Chamber of Commerce Foundation which oversees the Manhattan International Development ("MIDC")program.

David Nocero served as Director of Information Systems for Itochu /Prominent USA from 1994 to 1997. Citi Systems was established in 2002 with a primary objective of consulting for top designers such as Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Girbaud, Antik Denim and many more. Citi Systems is a solution provider that covers all aspects of fashion and accessories. David Nocero has been on many end user boards that consisted of major retailers including Walmart. David has had many new and existing implementations which included pdm, erp, plm and edi.

Donald M. Choi is a successful senior executive, most recently serving as Chief Financial Officer for Diane von Furstenberg Studio, L.P. In2004, Mr. Choi was recognized a one of the "50 Outstanding Asian American sin Business" by Asian American Business Development Center. In 2000, he successfully started his own software company, raised several million dollars for the operation of the company and closed a million dollar deal with the Federal government for the company's "Vidi talk" software program. Mr. Choi sold his interest in the company in 2001. Mr. Choi also served as Chief Financial Officer for Kinderhook, an IT consulting company, from 1996 until its sale in 2000. Prior to joining the workforce, Mr. Choi earned a BS/BA degree from Boston University School of Management.