Estonia opened new honorary consulates in Portland, OR, and San Francisco, CA, to help Estonian companies and citizens, and contribute to cooperation between Estonia and the United States.
Estonia’s new honorary consul in Portland is Skip Newberry, who was a businessman and economic advisor to the mayor of Portland and is currently the president of the Technology Association of Oregon. He is an active advocate on technology, business and private and public sector cooperation.
Estonia’s new honorary consul in San Francisco is Christine Marie Morgan, who has an Estonian background. She is a partner and an intellectual property and commercial trial lawyer at Reed Smith.
Mariin Ratnik, the undersecretary for economic and development affairs at the Estonian foreign ministry, said both Portland and San Francisco were important hubs for Estonian companies.
Portland as important as SF
“Whereas the San Francisco Bay Area is famous as a business centre, Portland is potentially just as important for us. More than 1,200 tech companies are based here, the largest local employer is Intel, and the Nike headquarters are located here,” she said.
“Located between Seattle and San Francisco, Portland is used by many companies as a base to cover the north-western US, as operating expenses can be lower here and the business environment is more open to newcomers,” Ratnik added.
There is a large Estonian community on the US West Coast and Estonians who are long-term US residents can contact honorary consuls for assistance if necessary – both when receiving new identity documents or when they have lost their documents.
Estonia now has a total of 17 honorary consulates in the United States.
