2005-05-29 Meeting

Jurgen Schmidt from Ottensoos, Germany addressed the club on a visit from his current home in Prague, Czech Republic. He is a member of the Prag-Bohemia Rotary Club and since 1968 Mr. Schmidt has been associated with Siemens Company . For the last ten years he has served as executive vice president and a member of the board.

Mr. Schmidt gave an interesting presentation of his Rotary Club, the Czech Republic, and his company after he and President Bill Wente exchanged flags from their home Rotary Clubs.

Jurgen shared that during World War II the Rotarian Club was closed until after the unification of Germany in 1990. There are seven clubs in Prague- five are Czech, one is an international club, and one is German speaking although there are representatives from three different countries and languages. Jurgen's club has 40 members, 20% of whom are women. Their main programs deal with supporting children. A "Dr. Clown " program supports children with cancer and 100% of this program is funded by his club. Another project deals with supporting 18 year olds who are released from orphanages supporting them in obtaining jobs and other needs . The third project deals with helping during catastrophic events.

Prague is highly developed unlike the countryside. The country has a population of 10.3 million with 1.2 million living in the city of Prague. The average worker makes $350 a month with women earning approximately $250 a month. Factories are moving from Germany to countries like the Czech Republic where labor costs are a fraction of those in Germany and other surrounding countries. In 2004 the country joined the European Union and uses the Euro as their currency.

Siemens was begun in 1819. It now has approximately 500,000 employees worldwide. Jurgen served as president responsible for automation. The Czech factories are located outside of Prague due to costs. Democracy in the country is working; it has a stable currency and supplies many auto manufacturing industries such as Volkswagen and Toyota. There are many companies within Siemens with 22 companies in Jurgen's group. When Jurgen began this position there were 1000 employees; now there are 13,000. At this time Mr. Schmidt is working in an advisory position focusing on cost cutting and business opportunities.