At Golder Associates we strive to provide beneficial technical solutions to our clients practically everywhere on earth. It is not unusual for a team of Golder people to work for a client who is based in Europe, but has an oil field in South America or a mine in Africa. In order to do this effectively, we have built the Golder Associates group of companies to serve global clients through our local offices. The term we coined internally to reflect this unique capability is “glocal.” While the Oxford English Dictionary doesn't recognize the word, this term is becoming well known within Golder. This issue of Technically Speaking definitely reflects our glocal capabilities. From our award-winning flood control work in China to our environmental permitting work at a mine in northern Sweden, the solutions we provide to our clients, some of which are described herein, are far afield and technically challenging.

I would like to also take a moment to introduce the readers of Technically Speaking to an initiative that we recently started – the Golder Trust for Orphans. The primary objective of the Trust is to provide support to children who have been orphaned or displaced by the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and to provide for the care and counseling of the families and dependents of persons affected with HIV/AIDS. More about this endeavor is described in the article about our team that is presently riding in the Tour d'Afrique – a grueling bicycle relay race that runs the length of the African continent.

Thank you for your continued interest in our activities and please contact us if you have any questions or would like to learn more about any of the projects described in this newsletter.

Kind Regards,
Frederick W. Firlotte