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Mr. Downer has spent his entire professional career in the field of corporate development. In 1966, he was among the first to recognize the existence of a significant market for specialized investment banking services in the field of international mergers and acquisitions. Having spent over thirty-five years providing such services to a wide variety of corporate clients, Mr. Downer ranks as one of the most experienced international corporate development professionals anywhere. In the course of representing major corporate clients, Mr. Downer has dealt extensively on their behalf with medium-sized European and American companies, which has led to a particularly detailed knowledge of the problems, opportunities, and needs of the owners and managers of such companies. Mr. Downer served as President of the Association for Corporate Growth International in 2003. ACG is the premier association for and about professionals involved in corporate growth, corporate development, and mergers & acquisitions. It has more than 9,000 members in 48 chapters throughout North America, Europe and soon Asia. Mr. Downer holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He is a Director of the Boston Fulbright Scholarship Committee and a Trustee of the Joslin Diabetes Center. He is also a director of numerous corporations, a former member of the Harvard University Art Museums' Board of Overseers Visiting Committee, and a former member of the Young Presidents Organization. He is fluent in French. | 