President Elbegdorj decorates two NAMBC officers during US visit

At a dinner in Washington, DC, hosted by the NAMBC Board of Directors on June 16, shortly after his White House meeting with President Obama, President Ts. Elbegdorj awarded decorations to two members of the NAMBC Board.

Elbegdorj presented the Order of the Polar Star to Vice Chairman Jim Wagenlander and the Medal of Friendship to Board Member Myrna Ann Adkins. Of all the American recipients of the Polar Star medal, Mongolia ’s highest decoration, over half are NAMBC officers.

Jim Wagenlander is a partner in the Denver law firm of Wagenlander & Heisterkamp LLC and has served as Honorary Consul of Mongolia for Colorado since 1999. Jim and his firm started working in Mongolia in 1989. In addition to representing North American and European companies in Mongolia and Mongolian companies in the
US , he has also handled legal work for Mongolian governmental agencies. Jim was co-founder of the Colorado Mongolia Project and the Ulaanbaatar-Denver Sister Cities Committee. 

Myrna Ann Adkins is the President and CEO of the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, a cross-cultural training organization headquartered in Denver. She and the Spring Institute have been active in Mongolia since 1996. In the 15 years since then, Myrna Ann and the Spring Institute have provided training for hundreds of Mongolians, including a significant percentage of Members of the State Great Hural and the senior ranks of the Mongolian government. Under her leadership, the Spring Institute founded the first foreign-operated university-affiliated school of English in Ulaanbaatar and went on to carve out an important niche in providing a variety of training for personnel of state-owned and private companies in various sectors, including mining, as well as Mongolian government agencies.