President Obama might have his faults and may have made the odd mistake, like listening to his war-mongering generals, but to me he is the best. Why, because our company has benefited from his elevation to lead this great nation. Call me selfish if you like, but that is the world we now live in. It is all about listening to that radio station WII FM, What’s In It For Me! On the way through our gift back to society is nine good Americans have now found a home where their futures are secure and CII did answer the call to give them a chance.

Congratulations to Martin and Manuel on their well earned promotions. Thank you again Martin and Manuel and also to Eddie, Bryant, Oscar, Katrina, Jose, Opal and Bridgette for all you do day in and day out to make CII a stronger company. We would certainly be poorer without your input.

When TSA first announced its implementation policy we became aware of the ramifications or I should say three senior staff members did. President Peter Lamy immediately saw huge opportunity while all I could see was increased costs! In spite of my skepticism, Peter went ahead and brought two experts on board; Jeremy Vergara and Zachary Zemby. The three of them, with me as an observer, tackled the issues and challenges with schoolboy enthusiasm. Today, our screening facility is a credit to Peter’s vision and tenacity to get the job done. CII also owes a huge amount to both Zachary and Jeremy for their thousands of hours of research and subsequent implementation of the plans.

As the rest of the industry continues to be at sixes and sevens praying the TSA will postpone D Day, the CII teams in Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York are ready to pick up the mantle once August 1st arrives. There is no question our screening facility will become a major source of revenue/profit in the years ahead.

CII’s Backstage Cargo division received a great start to the year by being awarded the contract to handle Whitney Houston on her world tour which started this week in Seoul, Korea. Pete Lamy was contacted by Ozzie Osbourne’s management on Christmas Day; Kelly was stuck in New York without her passport and she was leaving the following morning for London. With the help of Greg Melissinos, our Eastern Region VP, Kelly was able to make her flight as scheduled. There is no question having Maggie Martinez heading operations in L.A. has led to our Backstage order book never looking so healthy.

Our N.Y. and Atlanta offices despite the impediment caused by the terrible mid-winter weather recorded a healthy start to the year with several large “back to back” shipments. N.Y. is doing so well Pete gave approval to add another senior person to bolster our operations there. Doreen Cuomo, a veteran of the JFK forwarding community, starts with us next week. We have plans in the first quarter to add another person in Atlanta also.

Pete and I feel our customer-base has never looked so strong and even though the average shipment size continues to decline, it is made up by us handling more shipments. Our goal in 2009 was to gain a bigger slice of the shrinking and smaller pie. This approach certainly paid dividends. I believe our greatest achievement in creating strong foundation for a successful 2010 has been becoming a participant in President Obama’s stimulus program. We now have nine new staff added to our operations and all are now in the middle of a comprehensive training program. Our company has the resources to enable us to grow our business. All nine new staff members are super smart but above all possess a great work ethic. We are building a team that is taking us to new heights of business activity when most in our industry are adjusting theirs in the opposite direction to match the “shrinking pie”!