AEG), and Alpinvest, a fund of funds group based in Amsterdam, NL. He was Chairman of Net2Phone (NASDAQ-NTOP), a pioneer internet telephony company that went public and controlling interest was acquired by AT&T. Clifford M. Sobel served as United States Ambassador to the Federative Republic of Brazil from 2006 to 2009. As ambassador, he led the growing partnership between the United States and Brazil by reaching out to the federal, state and municipal governments, the legislature, as well as the business and NGO communities. New bilateral initiatives included the MOU on Biofuels, the CEO Forum, co-chaired by the President’s Office of Brazil and the United States, new aviation agreements, and the re-establishment of senior bilateral military talks. With the American corporate sector, he started Mais Unidos, a corporate social responsibility initiative which brings together over 100 U.S. companies, and a new law enforcement program called Projecto Pontes, which established cooperation between U.S. government law enforcement agencies and federal and local law enforcement officials in Brazil. Ambassador Sobel has received award recognition for contributions to bilateral relations from Brazil’s Ministry of Defense, as well as the State Governments of Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Sergipe. In May 2009 Ambassador Sobel and the CEO of Petrobras were recognized with the Man of the Year Award by the Brazil-American Chamber. Ambassador Sobel also served as ambassador to the Netherlands from 2001 to 2005. During that time, he worked with the Netherlands on the first joint European-American conference on 21st century innovation and negotiated a cooperative HIV/AIDS program in Africa. One of the priorities of the Embassy post 9-11, was the implementation of the Trade and Travel Security Program. The Netherlands was the first country to sign the Container Security Initiative with the United States and to implement new travel security programs at its ports and airports. In 2004 he was named the Netherlands’ personality of the year by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sectors for his contribution to the high tech community. In January 2012 Ambassador Sobel was recognized on the 50th Anniversary of the American Chamber in the Netherlands for his accomplishments in Trans-Atlantic relations. He served on the board of the Wenzhou-Kean University based in Zhejiang Province, China. Prior to becoming U.S. Ambassador, he was chairman of Net2Phone (NASDAQ NTOP), a pioneer internet company that went public in 1999 and was acquired by AT&T in 2000; chairman and president of SJJ