Fernando Golcher ‘07 Fernando Golcher ’07 recalls seeing many visitors from around the world at his dinner table as a child.
His father, a general auditor for Costa Rica’s state insurance company, traveled extensively in the Americas and Europe and often welcomed guests into the family’s home. The exposure, admits Golcher, left a lasting impression. “All those encounters with different people sparked my interest in the global world,” says the technology manager for Chiquita Brands International. Today, he’s following in his father’s global footsteps. Shortly after joining Chiquita in 1996, he was promoted to a corporate position based out of Costa Rica. “During those days, I was in charge of designing and installing the first wireless WAN network to connect the farms to the main office in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia,” explains Golcher. “With this role, I was in touch with a variety of cultures that were new to me.” More recently, Golcher’s responsibilities were expanded to include management of Chiquita’s European network that encompasses more than 40 locations in countries such as Belgium, England, Spain, the Czech Republic and Poland. Additionally, he has begun working in other network locations, such as the Ivory Coast, Singapore and China, where his team is responsible for providing cost-effective technology solutions for the local Chiquita offices. On a daily basis, Golcher is responsible for a team of 26 associates, management of all Latin American country budgets and trouble-shooting all network and infrastructure resources.
Thunderbird, Golcher feels, has given him the tools to work effectively in the finance area and has even strengthened his cultural skills. “Since the first term, I started to apply my lessons in cross-cultural communications,” explains Golcher, whose own family touts multinational roots – with a German father and American mother. “Learning about the cultural dimensions and how I can better understand and adjust to these differences has helped me work better with my fellow non-Costa Rican coworkers,” explains Golcher of the Thunderbird curriculum. “I could have avoided many incidents in the past if I had known these things before.” The 44-year-old, born in Costa Rica, holds dual citizenship in the United States and Costa Rica. With three daughters – ages 14, 4 and a newborn – Golcher says the program’s flexibility is what has allowed him to continue working full-time while advancing his education. The information systems engineering undergraduate degree he earned from Universidad Magister in Costa Rica, he felt, needed some refreshing. “I knew that there was a gap in the financial and accounting areas that I needed to learn in order to better execute my job,” he explains. As he prepares for a May graduation, Golcher, a people person who enjoys challenges and risk, says he’s effectively bridged that gap. |  |
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