Ms. Selden is currently the CEO and Founder of Selden Cafe, an Exporting Coffee company, and Selden Consulting, a Cross-Cultural Business Consulting and Spiritual Life Coaching Business, currently located in Metairie, LA.
Ms. Selden has over 10 years of financial and banking experience based in New York City, NY, and over 5 years of entrepreneurial experience in the United States and Colombia. Throughout her professional career, she has worked with financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, Mizuho Corporate Bank in different financial sectors (i.e. Public Finance, Structured Finance, Project Finance, Treasury Management and Project Management) that have bases and operations in the United States, Japan, Europe and Latin America.
In addition to her financial experience, she has also been trained to conduct business with companies from these countries. This aspect was crucial when Ms. Selden had to discuss transactional issues with clients in Brazil and senior management in Japan. Successfully presenting the issue according to Japanese cultural standards and understanding how the local laws and customs in Latin America affected these negotiated contracts was crucial for any transaction, along with her position in the company.
Project management has also played a major role for Ms. Selden. From managing multi-million-dollar projects for a prestigious international bank to managing direct mail campaigns, she understands the product and project, the end-user and or client, and the importance of delivering a good or service and providing excellent customer service.
On a personal journey, while starting her own small business in Colombia, she was able to utilize this skill set which helped the transition of learning how to deal and understand the cultural differences when running and operating a business in a foreign country. She has first-hand experience of what it is like to go through the adjustment process of learning how to find the best suppliers for her business, the exporting procedure of shipping coffee as well as build a steady clientele in Colombia and the US in order to stay competitive in the coffee industry.
Additionally, since 2016, Ms. Selden has served as an English teacher in Bogota, Colombia. She has taught at the university level, U.S. Embassy in Colombia, American businesses in Colombia, and other private English institutions. This ad hoc skill set has helped her to perfect her teaching style and methods, in addition to effectively interact with Colombian students. Understanding the cultural and learning students’ expectations with them has been an invaluable experience for her. It is extremely important to have consultants that have “walked in the shoes” of our potential clients. Ms. Selden has exhibited these qualifications. She has experience working with people from different backgrounds, work styles and management experience.