Eighteen years ago, Heather Potters '87, an international management major curious about life outside the United States, studied the American Dream with Professor John Roth. Today she makes her home in Central Europe, travels regularly from Poland to the neighboring countries as managing partner for Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe) Ltd., and visits family in a geographical network including the United States, Bahamas, United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Poland.

And even though nine time zones separate her from Claremont, Potters prioritizes her connections to her alma mater.

"Staying connected with CMC is like being part of a spider web," says Potters, who resides in Warsaw. "The College, students, and alumni have a symbiotic relationship, serving one another's needs at different times and over time."

Potters' commitment to the College is exemplified by her involvement with Euromeet 2003, an event that she helped organize with Kunal Kempka '99 in Warsaw last spring, during which 18 alumni, students, faculty, trustees, and President Pamela Gann shared a weekend touring the city.

With more than 100 CMC alumni living in Europe, Euromeet is an important tool for keeping alumni like Potters connected to the College. "Euromeet permits alumni in Europe to maintain and deepen their ties to the CMC community, and reflects CMC's global perspective and concern in world affairs," says Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V. Croul Professor of European History, who has attended and helped organize recent Euromeets, including last month's meetings in Florence, hosted by Trustee Neal and Jan Dempsey P'95.

Potters' interest in living abroad, working with developing markets, and experiencing the diversity of other cultures was developed from an early age, living and traveling to a number of countries before she started at CMC (Chile, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean). "Majoring in international management provided broad exposure to diverse topics, fit with my ambition to continue personal and professional exposure to foreign cultures, and allowed me to better understand life outside the United States," she says.

While completing her MBA at the Wharton School, Potters took an interest in venture capital and entrepreneurial studies. "I was intrigued," Potters says, "by a job including exposure to so many different aspects of business, with the heart of it related to entrepreneurialism." After graduating in 1991, Potters moved to Poland to join the Polish American Enterprise Fund, which eventually became Enterprise Investors (a private equity fund manager, managing 0 million), where she spent six years.

Interested in the region, she began efforts in 1997 to raise a media and communications-focused fund covering CEE and CIS countries, called Baring Communications Equity (Emerging Europe) Ltd., where she is now managing partner, overseeing investments and operations. "Emerging markets offer a roller coaster of events," says Potters, "all of which are educational."

She says that predicting the impact of economic trends for a specific market segment is difficult. Small details, such as exchange rates or decisions about in which currency to take out a loan, are important and difficult to predict in terms of how they influence company performance. These details, coupled with unforeseen events like the impact of war in a neighboring country or sweeping changes in local legislation, can be catastrophic for a business or a market.

"But all of the heartache, sleepless nights, negotiation, and renegotiation involved with addressing crisis situations," Potters continues, "is outweighed by the professional satisfaction of seeing a business develop successfully and provide an attractive return to its shareholders. Watching entrepreneurs and managers realize their dream of developing a company brings a special, immeasurable professional satisfaction."

Potters, her husband, Coen, and their two sons, ages 4 and 6, spend weekends and summers at their farm in northern Poland, with a menagerie of pets including two horses, two ponies, and three dogs. The couple, both licensed pilots, recently purchased a small plane.

"Because I grew up in an environment rich in outdoor life and in a family of pilots, I have tried to recreate that in my adult life," says Potters. "It is my nature to live life to the fullest."

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Potters was a panelist at a conference hosted by the Polish Private Equity Association.