Jeff Purner & Porsche 918 Spyder

I admit, this visit really doesn't qualify as a German company visit, but in my defense it is all about a German car brand - Porsche!

Porsche Sport Driving School (PSDS) is located in the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, AL. I visited with Jeff Purner, president of Jeff Purner & Associates, LLC, which manages and runs the Porsche owned driving school. Like most of the 67 instructors at the school, Jeff himself is a former race car driver with 14 years of experience behind the wheel as a pro driver (some for Porsche). He retired at the end of 1997 and began as a driving instructor.  He and Don Panoz founded the Panoz Racing School, after Mr. Panoz bought Road Atlanta in 1997. In 2003, Jeff came to Alabama and established Porsche Sport Driving School (PSDS). Looking for a first class facility, which would work year around, and reflecting Porsche's image and quality; a match was made between PSDS and Barber Motorsports Park. The road race facility at the Barber Motorsports Park is recognized as one of the best in the world.  With 2.38 mile course, 16 turns in a rolling terrain - the track offers an ideal course for learning the finer points of the art of high-performance driving.

The school stays busy, very busy, with 155 event days per year, 10 full-time and 2 part-time employees the school stays busy, very busy. There is a total of 13 Porsche sport driving school in the world and then one in Leeds is the only one in North America. Approx. 3000 people come through the programs every year (20,000 since they opened their doors).  

For full story of Porsche Sport Driving School click here... 

By Christian Höferle, The Culture Mastery 

People who leave their country to work abroad not only say goodbye to their home, they also remove themselves from the general frameworks of life they have grown up in and are used to. Expatriates - especially those who go for the first time in their career - are like fish out of water: Aside from the obvious and often expected hard changes - language, home search, new job, climate, cultural differences - it is the realization that an expat assignment is not an extended vacation.

Click here for The Culture Mastery's full article.

By Isaac Espy, AGP Intern

Last Wednesday afternoon, we (me and Tine Hoffmeister) had the pleasure of joining a few ladies in their weekly tradition of Stammtisch at the Cafe Edelweiss in Tuscaloosa. When we arrived, we were greeted merrily by Gisela Sneed, one of the long-time attendees of the group. She invited us in and we obliged.

This Tuscaloosa Stammtisch tradition at Cafe Edelweiss was founded in 2010 by Kay Reyes. Having been invited to a Stammtisch at the original Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany while on vacation, Reyes loved the idea and, upon returning home, began attending the Stammtisch in Birmingham. However, the week-night commute from Tuscaloosa was not ideal, so she made a plan to found her own Stammtisch in her hometown.

Cafe Edelweiss, Tuscaloosa's specialty German cafe with a great number of German-speaking customers, was the most logical place to have it, and Ester Scheef, the owner, was graciously willing to host. Reyes began finding members for the Stammtisch through contacts from Frau Scheef, the University of Alabama's German department, as well as workers from the Mercedes facility in Vance, AL. The founding meeting was held in May 2010, and the group has continued ever since: Wednesdays at 1:00, and as its one rule, conversation is always in German.

Click here for full story of the Stammtisch visit.