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Carolinks: The players
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Lucy Duncan-Scheman
Lucy Duncan-Scheman, president and CEO of Carolinks, is a Charleston native and self-described 14th generation South Carolinian. She attended classes at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Brookville, N.Y., but never graduated from the institution, she said.
Instead, she moved to Miami where published reports state she began her career as a marketing consultant at the Port of Miami from 1983 to 1986, said Andria C. Muniz, Port of Miami spokeswoman.
From there, Duncan-Scheman moved to Caracas, Venezuela, where she lived until 1992, personally investing in a number of industries.
In 1992, she returned to the United States, starting her own company, Diplomatic Resolutions Inc., in Washington, D.C.
A description of the company found on Mideast.net, an Internet business promoter for companies doing business in the Near and Middle East, described Diplomatic Resolutions as an international consulting firm representing Fortune 500 technology companies in emerging markets.
Published reports state that over the next eight years, Duncan-Scheman guided a number of companies, including Cisco Systems, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Lucent, Tyco, Tandem Computers and Microsoft, into emerging foreign markets.
A representative for Microsoft said she would not comment on past or present employees or contractors.
Representatives of other companies, including Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and Tyco, said they could not find any information relating to such a business collaboration but also said that, that didn’t indicate there had not been one.
Duncan-Scheman sold Diplomatic Resolutions in 2000 and went into the venture capital business after the global Y2K scare proved to be fantasy rather than reality.
In 2001, she was asked to head the Organization of American States’ Museum of the Americas, where she designed and led fundraising efforts for MuseAmericas, connecting more than 300 museums in the Western Hemisphere.
The result was the founding of Safe Ports Inc. in 2002, followed by the founding of Safe Ports Mexico the following year.
Safe Ports’ Web site describes the company as a port security and development corporation that, “quickly established a spectrum of strategic alliances with major corporations in defense, security software, management training and advanced security technology.”
But details of Safe Ports’ work with actual port security systems is virtually nonexistence, which is by design, Duncan-Scheman said.
L. Ronald Scheman
L. Ronald Scheman, husband of Lucy Duncan-Scheman, is chairman of Safe Ports Finance and manages the financial component of Safe Ports’ projects.
His resume reveals that he has been involved in inter-American affairs and has held a number of positions in finance, law and academics over the past 40 years.
From 1961-1964, he was a member of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Organization of American States. In the late 1960s, Scheman played a leading role in creating new patterns of financial and technical assistance to micro-enterprises and low-income communities when he founded the Pan American Development Foundation, which pioneered the concept of micro-enterprise loans.
He served as executive director of the foundation from 1964-1968 and president of the board from 1977-1982.
His previous experience in inter-American affairs includes serving as assistant secretary for management of the Organization of American States from 1975-1983, and director of office planning under OAS Secretary General Galo Plaza from 1968-1970.
In the private sector, Scheman reportedly worked for major investment houses in New York and London, and was the principal architect of the Latin American Investment Guarantee Corp., financed by AIG and the Andean Development Corp.
Scheman served as advisor to several governments and corporations as president of Porter International Co. between 1970-1975 and subsequently in his law practice, where he was a senior partner in the firm of Heller, Rosenblatt & Scheman from 1989-1993.
Scheman was executive director for the United States of the Inter-American Development Bank from 1993-1998.
He chaired the international finance practice at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig from 1998-2000. From 2000-2004 Scheman was director general of the OAS’ Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development.
He is also the author of several books, including The Inter-American Dilemma and The Alliance for Progress in Retrospect, and is, reportedly, an amateur vintner.
Kenneth L. Londoner
Safe Ports’ managing partner for finance is Kenneth L. Londoner, who joined the company in 2005.
Between 1991 and 1997, he served as vice president and investment officer for J.W. Seligman & Co. Inc. He was responsible for investment research in the retail, textile, apparel, media and entertainment sectors.
In 1996, he founded and became CEO of Redcoat Capital Management LLC, with more than $950 million under management and clients ranging from high net-worth individuals, to institutions and companies.
He also founded and managed Arrowpoint Capital Management LLC, a long and short hedge fund catering to the needs of high net-worth individuals.
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