Wednesday, 02-02-2005

RESCHEDULED - Offshoring: Another Side of the Story (Perspectives from Overseas)

**NOTE** This event, which was originally scheduled for January 12, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 2. Please note the new addition to the panel, Rajeev Agarwal, founder and CEO of MAQ Software.

**NOTE** Due to extenuating circumstances Ali Tarhouni is no longer able to participate in this program. Bill Price, founder of Driva Solutions will take his place.

Although offshoring is not a new phenomena, it has recently caused a flurry of debate about the loss of US jobs and its effect on the US economy. While there are varying points of view on the subject from inside the US, what are the effects of the increased offshoring on the recipient nations? When jobs and income arrive, what economic and social changes follow?

Join us for breakfast and a panel discussion on the other side of the offshoring story in specific Asian countries. Panelists from the University of Washington will be Gary G. Hamilton, Professor of Sociology and the Jackson School of International Studies; Bill Price, founder and president of Driva Solutions; and Rajeev Agarwal, founder and managing consultant of MAQ Software.

Co-Sponsors

Global Business Center at the UW
East Asia Center, South Asian Studies program,
and Southeast Asian Studies at the UW Jackson School of International Studies

Speaker Profiles

Gary G. Hamilton

Gary G. Hamilton is a Professor in the UW Department of Sociology and the UW's Jackson School of International Studies. He specializes in historical/comparative sociology, economic sociology, and organizational sociology with a focus in Asian societies, with particular emphasis on Chinese societies. He has previously held teaching positions at the University of California, Davis, and Tunghai University in Taiwan. He is the recipient of a number of honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a fellowship at The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Dr. Hamilton has received research awards from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. He has published numerous books and articles, including most recently Cosmopolitan Capitalists: Hong Kong and the Chinese Diaspora at the end of the 20th Century, editor and contributor (University of Washington Press, 1999), The Economic Organization of East Asian Capitalism, with Marco Orru and Nicole Biggart (Sage 1997), and Asian Business Networks, editor (de Gruyter, 1996). He is the co-author, with Robert Feenstra, of a forthcoming book, Emergent Economies, Divergent Paths: Economic Organization and International Trade in South Korea and Taiwan, (Cambridge University Press).

Bill Price

Bill Price is founder and president of Driva Solutions, a company that provides strategic consulting and business development advisory services to the contact center industry in the US, Europe and Japan. Prior to founding Driva, he was the first Vice-president of Global Customer Service at Amazon, and co-led the company's pioneering web-based customer self-service initiatives.

Bill is on the editorial advisory board of CC News, and is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He has been an Adjunct Professor of e-Commerce at Marshall University, serves on the Strategic Management Society's Strategic Process Interest Group, is on the Technical Advisory Board of several leading ASP and CRM software firms, and was named "Call Center Pioneer of the Year" in 1997 by Call Center Magazine. Mr. Price recently took part in the 2004 UW E-Business Conference discussion on outsourcing with Ali Tarhouni, Bill Virgin and Sanjay Kumar of vCustomer.

Bill Price received his BA in Economic Geography from Dartmouth College in 1972 and his MBA from Stanford University in 1979. From 1972-1977 Bill served as a line officer in the US Navy.


Rajeev Agarwal

As the founder and the managing consultant of MAQ Software, Rajeev works with customers to plan and develop innovative applications on various technology platforms. With five years of consistent growth, the company has grown to over 70 employees worldwide with offices in Redmond, WA and Bombay, India.

Prior to founding MAQ Software, Rajeev worked at Microsoft Corporation in product management groups with annual revenues ranging from $50 million to $5 billion. His responsibilities included product planning, marketing strategy and marketing programs to reach customers worldwide.

Rajeev has been widely quoted on software industry issues in the US media including the Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal and the BBC World Business Report TV program. In India, major business newspapers (including the Economic Times and the Business Standard) have covered his views on software industry and education.

Rajeev holds a B. Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, a Master's in Engineering from Iowa State University, and an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor.