Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
On today's episode of
investing in the American Dream
podcast, we have featured guest,Dan Wicklund, who is the newly
appointed president of Firstpathway partners. And we have aI
USA President and FPP CEO BobKraft joining us. Today's
episode, we'll discuss Dan'srecent appointment as president,
what that means for the companyand the trajectory, along with
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changes to the EB five programand growing trends. Let's get
into it. Bob, Dan, thank youboth for joining us today to
talk about Dan's recentappointment as president and
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talk about the trajectory of thecompany, along with the changes
to the EB five, EB five program,and what we see in the future.
And Dan, congrats. And Bob, youknow, with the changes happening
here at FPP, how do you, youknow, can you share what your
what responsibilities are goingto change or with your role in
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particular as chairman and CEO,and then as Dan takes over as
president?
Yeah. Thanks. Great to be here.
And congratulations, Dan.
Thanks, longtime coming. Dan,and I started together in 2008.
And he's been a partner from thevery beginning and really the
driver, in many ways to thecompany's success. So my role
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had been title wise, chairman,president and CEO, but, and Dan
is operated as executive vicepresident and chief operating
officer. And he really wasmaking all the shots, the call
all the shots, so to speak for along time. So this is logical
evolution, recognition of themany contributions he's made.
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And it's part of a longer termtransition period, I'm going to
continue as chairman and CEO,first pathway partners, but you
know, Dan deservedly earns thetitle of president really a
recognition of the great jobhe's done here. So on a day to
day basis, I really don't seemuch changing, I'm gonna
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continue to be active. Myinvolvement has been over the
last many years more focused onthe industry, you know, working
toward the legislative changesthat we were successful in this
past summer. But we've got a lotof work yet to do as an
association. So that's been veryrewarding, very important for
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the industry to set things upfor the long term good of FPP.
But but you know, which is partof the global EB five ecosystem.
So,Dan, how do you see your role
changing from executive VP toPresident?
Well, I think, you know, as Bobsaid, he's, he's been very good
to me and allowed me to make alot of decisions already, which
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has been great. It's been agreat learning experience for
me. You know, having a leader ofour company like Bob, that has
given me the freedom to makesome of these decisions with a
lot of his input. You know,having a good mentor is always
important. And, you know, Ithink I'm fortunate that way,
Bob, to have had you as aleader, because I think it's
taught me to be a good leader.
It's helped me in makingdecisions. I know, you're,
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you're not going anywhere, butyou've always been a great
sounding board either way. And Ithink, you know, giving me that
wiggle room early on to makesome of these decisions. And
some mistakes that I've learnedfrom has made me a much better
leader. So in my role now,again, I see a continued
presence from Bob and continuedgrowth in our company from the
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leadership of both of us.
That's great. Thank you forclarifying that, too. I know
there were some questions, Bob,if your involvement would still
be here with with FPP.
Yeah, we've been we've beenreally lucky. I mean, it's been
it's been fun. 15 years now,right in business, and starting
with an idea based on perhapsbringing a new level of
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professionalism to the EB fiveindustry. You know, as I looked
at the industry began looking at2004. As an economic driver for
the state of Wisconsin, I sawwhat I thought was an
opportunity to bringprofessional business practices
to the industry. That was alittle more mom and pop at the
time. And we've come a long wayin 15 years. And this is just a
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logical evolution in the historyof the company. And with Dan's
efforts, from the verybeginning, we've achieved a lot.
So I feel blessed and fortunateto have met Dan, we've known
each other going back before2008. But it's been a lot of
fun. We've had a lot of success.
And I know Dan's proud of I'mvery proud of what he's
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accomplished. But as a company,what we've accomplished in the
fine job we've done for ourinvestors globally.
Yeah, and I know you justtouched on the 15 years And FPP
is celebrating a 15 yearanniversary this year. So, you
know, can I ask what do youattribute to the success of the
company in longevity?
Well, I think it's really thequality of the staff, the total
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staff, I mean, Dan's done a goodjob of building out staff, we
have really a very gifted groupof people that are dedicated to
our investors, they find thework very interesting, the
international aspects of it, adda flavor to it that you don't
get in domestic business, or aregional business. And it's very
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complex. It's very complicated.
It's very trying at times. Butwe're fortunate we have a staff
that has been assembled over theyears that enjoys the challenge
of that, and ultimately getsgreat satisfaction of seeing
people coming to the UnitedStates successfully and achieve
and then participate in theAmerican Dream contribute to our
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society. So to me, it's been themost rewarding part of my 40
plus year business career, themost interesting part. And then
to share it with someone likeDan, it's been makes it extra
special.
Yeah, I think I'll probably I'm,I don't blush. But thanks, Bob.
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You know, I think I think it'sbeen, you know, to hear the
praise from Bob. And, you know,when I, when Bob made this
appointment to President for mehere, the praise from a lot of
other people, you know, Bob'sright, he, it's the team we have
here, and we are a great team,you know, Bob's vision from the
beginning was to build out agood team, I was glad from the
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beginning, I got to be part ofthat. You know, when you look
back on 15 years, I thinkthere's times where Bob and I
have gotten a good laugh aboutsome of this too, you know, the
things you learn over 15 years,especially about a business like
EB five. It's been a greatjourney, you know, from the
travel to the people. But wecouldn't do without the team we
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have here. Jessica, you'veplayed a great role. Since
you've come on. I mean, I thinkBob and I both attribute a lot
of our success to Jennifer, Iwould agree with you that she's
everyone's go to,she's everyone's go to, you
know, I mean, I just walked outof her office a few minutes ago,
because I needed someassistance. You know, I think
that, you know, having a teamand having someone like Jan, who
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has helped to spearhead some ofthis, and helped us build out
this team. It's been an amazingjourney. And, you know, that
team is important, because inthe EB five world, you're
dealing with these investors.
And granted, we're, we'rebringing them in, we're teaching
them about these projects, theimmigration journey, but then
the fact that we're holdingtheir hand, you know, all the
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way through that journey fromthe time they, they get access
to the US, they get theirpermanent green card. You know,
recently we got pictures fromone of our investors in his
family who got theircitizenship. I mean, it's a neat
experience. But if you don'thave the right team, surrounding
you, it's hard to deal with thatwhole process. And it's hard to
deal with each individualinvestors need. So I really
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think what made us verysuccessful is you go with Bob's
vision at the top. But then allthe people who have underneath
you, Bob, I think that's what'sreally made a shine in the
industry for our investors.
Iran, I think the you know,another angle to the question,
Jessica would be the focus onhigh integrity. And that was
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something that I've alwaysbelieved in. And we preach from
the very beginning. And we talkabout it within the company, but
also with our partners andclients. And we work with a lot
of different people, attorneysand developers and, you know,
folks that are involved insupporting the industry, and
you're only as good as yourword. And we've always been very
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consistent to not overcommitting to things, not over
promising. And doing exactlywhat we say in I've always
believed that in the long term.
You know, people will recognizethat respect that we're not the
largest in the industry. But Ithink we're one of the most
respected in terms of the waywe've given back to the
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industry. That's a big part ofthe involvement with I USA,
because I believe in theindustry, and I believe in
protecting the investor. And Ibelieve in representing the
whole system, the wholeecosystem, if you will, in a
positive way in order to benefitthe whole industry. And most
importantly, the investor. Imean, the legislative changes
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really go a long way to shorethings up to make even better so
that we have a very, very brightfuture as an industry going
forward. So I think that's animportant part of the success
we've had. And then eventually,word gets out and people
recognize and say these arequality people, and that's what
we want to be affiliated with.
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So I think that's a big part ofthe success we've achieved.
Bob, where do you see EB fiveheading, what areas do you think
EB five will start expandinginto, you know, becoming more
attractive as an option for UScitizenship?
Well, let me address the theCanon long term vision for the
industry on a macro basis. Andthen maybe Dan can talk about
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market. You know, the objectivenow, once the IRI was put in
place, that's great. We have afive year authorization. But
that doesn't mean there's not alot of work to do. The
association has already shiftedto how do we obtain a permanent
reauthorization in 2027. Sothat's been a big focus for the
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board of directors of AI USA andthe leadership. And we're
already working on that we havea number of initiatives to make
sure we do a better job as anindustry, of making sure
Congress and the constituents inthe United States the benefit
from EB five, and I'm talkingabout states and municipalities,
cities, counties, that theyunderstand the economic impact
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positive impact in theircommunities of EB five, it could
be even larger. If people gotbehind it authorized a permanent
program and increased feesavailability. The other thing
that we're working very hard onis processing times, we've had
dialogue with USCIS that needsto improve dramatically, if
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we're able to get the velocitythrough the system to provide
surety with respect to how longdoes it take to process these
various forms so that theinvestors know it's not a three
year wait until here anything inthat's really critically
important to gain velocitywithin the industry. So that's a
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high priority. So we're workingon that as well. With respect to
specific markets, I'll turn toDan, because things are changing
a little bit, and you have alittle better handle on that
than I do.
Yeah, I mean, I think they'realways changing the points that
Bob touched on are clearlyimportant. And drive change in
the program. In general, Bob hasbeen a big driver for positive
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change. Right, timidly the US isthe destination for people
around the world. And they seeit as a value. And we like being
able to provide that value inthe projects, we bring the
service that we provide. And sowe'll just continue to grow
those markets, we were reallyfortunate to have some great
people in those markets to helpfacilitate the process for
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investors helped manage this.
And again, that's our team.
That's our team. And that's beenour growth, and we want to
continue to do that.
Yeah. You know, Dan, you talkedabout growing and the team, do
you envision growing the team tomeet the needs of, you know,
growing needs of investors?
I mean, absolutely, you know,growth is our main goal, Bob and
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I have talked about it a lot.
You know, slow and steady hasbeen perfect for us, you know,
we have a great track record.
Great history, great peoplealready. And our goal for this
next year, especially with thegrowth of the program, the
continued interest is to reachinto these markets more continue
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to hire a great team, expandthat team. Because with that
growth into these new markets,we do need more people in those
markets, because that individualhandholding for investors is
really important, not only forus as a company, but for those
individual investors. So we wantto continue that mission of
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serving them properly. So sodefinitely growth is a huge
thing for us. It's growing asmarkets, it's growing. You know,
our project pipeline. We'rereally fortunate right now our
Tallis project in SouthernCalifornia, it's fantastic. And
it's really key to have good,safe projects that create jobs
to qualify people for greencards. And you know, that's a
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task in itself. And growth isfinding those good quality
projects. Because, you know,there's a lot of projects out
there. And, you know, we getpitched a lot of projects by
people. But you know, we've beenwe've been pretty selective of
our projects to make sure again,we can be successful for our
investors. And that's part ofthe growth too, is continuing to
find those quality projects,like, you know, our current
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Tallis project that allowsinvestors to invest, get their
green card and ultimately feelsecure in their decision.
You know, you talk about thatproject. It really is an
exceptional project. We've hadsome great ones. But to put a
project together is verycomplicated. And the whole
business is complicated. Butwhen you think of the different
pieces that have to cometogether, it's pretty daunting,
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really, and we're fortunate. Wehave good partners that we work
with that bring usopportunities, and we've been
blessed with very, very solidprojects, but that's a long
process in itself. And I'd say Idon't know how many We look at
that we reject before you findthe right one. I mean, that's,
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that takes a lot of time. Andthen you throw the complexity of
the sale price process, and thenthe immigration aspects of it
interacting with the investors.
It's not an easy business,fortunate. But Jen, I mean, I
get to comment often when Itravel internationally, what a
great attorney, Jennifer isexactly how long she been
practicing law as well. Jenniferis not an attorney, but she
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actually knows more about thisprogram than most attorneys do,
which is true. And she'swonderful in the way she patient
and, and interacts with clients.
And that's been a really bigpart of our success. Rick, as
you look at the team as a whole,you know, and I think we'll
always bet, go back to talkingabout what how important, you
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know, Jen has been to our team,but our team expands right, when
you talk about the projects. Youknow, it's it's finding that
right team that's doing theproject as well, I think on this
one, you know, with RobertGreene and his team, we really
were fortunate to meet them getto know them. I mean, that's
clearly an important part,because between the first
pathway team that we have here,our investors and their
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families, and also thesedevelopment teams, we're all in
this together, you know,everybody wants to see these
projects successful. You know,for a developer, it's clearly,
you know, making money for theinvestor, it's getting the green
card, and we sit in the middletrying to facilitate that whole
process. And I think having thatgood quality team all the way
around. Again, it's just beenimportant to our
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success, kind of going back tosomething Dan said, the partners
that we work with is we vettedprojects, and then aligned
interests to make sure that itwas fair for everybody. And
found people that had the samementality as we do, you just you
know, you're kind of as good asa handshake good as your word.
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Not without a lot of duediligence. But you know, when
you get to that, or legaldocument or legal citation,
which is a whole nother notherlevel of complexity, but that
allowed us to get through somereally tough times with some of
our partners, and there was alot of give and take to make
sure that we protected theinvestor, we protected the
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investor. And we did what wasright, from business standpoint,
to make sure that we looked atthe long term and not try and
take advantage of the problemsin the marketplace. And in hurt
investors are our partners. Soyou know, at all, it all works.
If you put the time into makesure you have the right
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partners, and you have afairness in an understanding of
fairness, and integrity goingin. And then of course, you have
all the lawyers that documenteverything, and they probably do
the best out of anybody in thisindustry from a from a monetary
standpoint. Yeah, yeah,we joke about that all the time,
for sure. But also, you know,how important if some of the
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attorneys we've worked withbeen, you know, for us in and
again, setting things up for usoriginally, you know, back in,
in even before 2008, we weretalking to some of them, but
also, you know, throughout theyears and in helping us helping
us structure things helping usnavigate the complicated world
of EB five, it you know, ittakes some good attorneys to do
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that. And also with clients,right, we're really fortunate to
have some great attorneys thatwe've that our clients have
introduced us to, and we'veintroduced our clients to, that
have helped them on theirjourney, because it is a
complicated process. And I thinkwith our partners on the legal
side, we've really managed tosimplify it off our investors,
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which is made the journey mucheasier, make
a good point, because you don'treally and I've said this in, in
public forums, if you don't havegood legal advice, you're really
going to have problems. And youcan have all the other aspects,
good intentions, whatever. Butit's a very, very specialized
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category that we operate within.
So when we started the company,we actually went to the two of
the attorneys that were involvedin writing the law, and were
involved from the verybeginning. And they helped us
set a very strong foundationfrom a legal standpoint. And we
continue to work with them. Andwe've worked we've added to that
pool of attorneys that do workfor us, including the former
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acting director of USCIS whoknows that inside and out, so
we, we have a very broad groupof attorneys that we really
respect and trust. And they do agreat job behalf of us, but also
if the client wants to use theirservices, that's great, but we
have, I don't know how manyattorneys that we can recommend
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but there are some of the bestin the world. And that really
guarantees a lot the successthat we've had is if you do not
have good documents submissionand completion. You're going to
have problems down the road. SoI mean, there's a lot that goes
into it. And we're again, we'relucky to have found these
people. And they like workingwith us. So I mean, it's, it's,
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it's, it's great. We think ofthem more as part of the
company. Yeah, evenI mean, some of them become
friends over the year. Yep. Youknow, you become a tight knit
family when you're workingtogether towards a common goal
for somebody. And, you know,between them, even, you know, we
laugh about it sometimes withsome of our competitors, too,
you know, there's some goodpeople we've met throughout the
years that have really helped, Iknow, You've touted these
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relationships, along with Iowa,USA, and how they've really
helped champion this, this lawand things like that, we've made
some great relationships. And Ithink, you know, when you come
full circle, you know, theserelationships were created by,
you know, Bob's vision and hispersonality, that is warm
personality that has been reallyhelpful, again, for me to learn
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from, and has really helped ourcompany grow the way it has,
because it has helped createthose relationships with our
partners and our investors.
Yeah, I'm with our team here.
And I think, you know, that'swhat I want to continue to do as
President to create thoserelationships, because
ultimately, that's what bringsthe growth,
we receive so many testimonialsfrom clients saying, you know,
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how much we were a part of theirjourney and helping them through
the process and understandingthe documentation. Right down to
like you had said them sharingphotos of their family receiving
citizenship. So it just goes toshow you know, how closely FPP
works with with clients and theattorneys as well to make sure
that their journey issuccessful.
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You know, the most importantthing is, again, is that the
investor has a successfulconclusion to their investment.
That's as important to us asanything, and I think people
pick up on that. And it comesback to us in many different
ways. And I think that'simportant, and also industry and
representing the industry in apositive manner.
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Well, Bob, Dan, thank you somuch for your time today. And
Dan, congrats again, on yourappointment, sir. Any any final
thoughts you'd like to sharewith us?
No, I guess I mean, I appreciatethe honor. And I appreciate the
faith that Bob has put in me,it's been, it's been a great
journey. I've learned a lot andand I think our growth going
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forward, we've got a lot ofexciting things, new
announcements coming in the newyear here. And we're going to
continue to build off what Bobhas created. And we've all
worked really hard for to getthat growth we're looking for
and to also continue toaccomplish the mission, which is
to help our investors get theirfamilies to the US.
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And I'm still here.
Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Bob.
Thanks, Dan. Thanks, congrats.
If you would like to know moreabout first pathway partners,
and how they can help you with adirect EB five investment or if
you're looking for other visaopportunities, such as an E two
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visa, please contact themdirectly online at www dot first
pathway.com