Highlights of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Appalachia

As a principal for Nexant Inc. in Washington, D.C., Rebecca Gaskin Gain consults with the federal government on financial transactions with African nations. While on vacation, Rebecca Gaskin Gain and her husband enjoy hiking off the Blue Ridge Parkway, which traverses the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina and Virginia.

The idea of the Parkway originated in 1933 with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and road-building began in 1935. Because of the Great Depression and World War II, construction proceeded sporadically. Although it was nearly complete in the 1960s, the last section - an engineering marvel known as the Linn Cove Viaduct - was not finished until 1987.

The scenic two-lane winding road is designed for leisurely travel. Large trucks are banned and the speed limit is 45 miles per hour. Along its 469 miles are many attractions, such as:

- Mount Mitchell State Park. At 6,684 feet, Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. The park, accessible from milepost 355.4, offers splendid views of the Appalachians from its 360-degree observation deck. Visitors can also enjoy camping, hiking, and a natural history museum.

- Linville Falls. Located in a gorge nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Southern Appalachians, the falls are arrayed in three separate plunges. Trails overlook the falls in four places. The visitor center is at milepost 316. The area is a popular campsite and features the Parkway’s only group camping facilities.

Finovate 2018 Features Four Prominent Speakers

A graduate of the Emory University School of Law, Rebecca Gaskin Gain serves as principal for Nexant, Inc., which is located in Washington, D.C. To keep current with industry trends, Rebecca Gaskin Gain attended Finovate 2018 in Dubai, where she joined learning sessions on blockchain and ledger technology for underserved communities.

Finovate conferences highlight cutting-edge financial and banking technology through demonstrations. Finovate has conferences scheduled across the world, including the Middle East. This conference typically brings together more than 300 attendees, 20-plus companies performing demonstrations, and more than 25 speakers.

For the 2018 conference, among the speakers who attended were the following:

* Raja Al Mazrouei, the acting vice president for FinTech Hive of the Dubai International Financial Centre.

* Suvo Sarkar, the senior executive vice president and group head of retail banking and wealth management for Emirates NBD.

* Sara Grinstead, the chief innovation officer of RAKBANK.

* Ruth Wandhofer, the managing director and global head of regulatory and market strategy for Citi.

Blue Ridge Parkway Offers Stunning Sights

Fluent in English and French, Rebecca Gaskin Gain works as a principal for Nexant, Inc. in Washington, D.C. In her spare time, Rebecca Gaskin Gain enjoys hiking in the mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Almost 500 miles long, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic roadway that winds its way through Virginia and North Carolina and spans the southern and central Appalachian Mountains. Known for its biodiversity, the Blue Ridge Parkway includes a variety of wildlife, geological features, and vegetation. Each year, several million people travel to this area to experience the parkway and its environs.

The scenic byway is divided into four districts, which include the Ridge, Plateau, Highlands, and Pisgah. The first two districts are found in Virginia, while the latter two are in North Carolina. At either end of the byway travelers can access two gateway national parks, Great Smoky National Park and Shenandoah National Park.

Highlights of the Blue Ridge Parkway include the following:

* Mount Mitchell, which is the highest mountain peak in the eastern United States.

* Whitewater Falls, which is the highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains.

* New River, which is the oldest river in North America.

* Linville Gorge, which is the deepest gorge east of the Grand Canyon.

The History of American Bluegrass Music

Holder of a juris doctor and a member of the New York State Bar Association, Rebecca Gaskin Gain advises clients in the international arena. Through her travels, she has been exposed to little-known styles of regional music, from performances by the Congolese Symphony Orchestra to nomadic blues from the Afar territories in the Horn of African. Rebecca Gaskin Gain has also developed an intimate familiarity with traditional bluegrass music from the Appalachian Mountains.

The origins of bluegrass music go back to North America in the 1600s, when immigrants from Ireland, England, and Scotland greatly influenced musical tastes in regions that eventually became the states of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina.

The songs often told of rural living, from laboring on a farm to exploring the Appalachian wilderness. For a while, it was called "mountain music," reflecting these roots. But eventually, especially with the advent of the phonograph and other technologies, this rural music found its way to American cities. Today, bluegrass music is enjoyed by music lovers around the globe.

The World's Premier Conference on Urban Development

An experienced advisor, Rebecca Gaskin Gain has helped clients achieve their goals in international business and law for nearly three decades. In 2004, she sat on a panel at the UN-Habitat's World Urban Forum in Barcelona, Spain. It was the forum's second annual gathering, and Rebecca Gaskin Gain focused her discussion on the development of a low-income mortgage product for Standard Bank.

A program by the United Nations, UN-Habitat is dedicated to working toward a better urban future. Its mission is to encourage socially and environmentally sustainable human infrastructure, from public transportation to sanitation and electricity. To this end, it founded the World Urban Forum in 2001.

At the biennial event, thousands convene to discuss challenges surrounding urban growth. More than 23,000 participants attended the 2018 forum. In part due to its high-level participation, the World Urban Forum has earned a reputation as the world's premier conference on urban development. The 10th World Urban Forum will take place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2020.

Ne La Thiass by Cheikh Lo

Rebecca Gaskin Gain is an accomplished business and legal advisor with extensive investment planning and management experience. When she isn’t working, she is a fan of indigenous African music from Congo and Senegal. One of Rebecca Gaskin Gain’s favorite Senegalese singers is Cheikh Lo.

A native of Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cheikh Lo taught himself to play guitar and drums as a child. At the age of 21, he got his professional start as percussionist with the popular regional group Orchestra Volta Jazz. 

Cheikh Lo established himself as a viable solo artist in 1996 with the release of his debut album Ne La Thiass. Roughly translated as “gone in a flash,” Ne La Thiass blends the Mande, Wolof, and Congolese musical styles of West Africa with the Cuban music that first rose to popularity in Africa during Cheikh Lo’s youth.

Senaglese superstar Youssou N’Dour decided to produce this benchmark album after hearing a rough demo of Cheikh Lo’s music. The musicians backing Mr. Lo on Ne La Thiass hailed from Youssou N’Dour’s band, Super Etoile.

Addressing SME Funding Issues

As a principal with Washington, DC’s Nexant, Rebecca Gaskin Gain advises on a range of African power projects with involvement from the US federal government. Over the years she has conducted and developed businesses in multiple international sectors. One of Rebecca Gaskin Gain’s key areas of professional interest is SME (small and medium enterprise) finance.

Due to the very nature of small and medium enterprises, SME funding presents many significant challenges. Smaller business ventures are generally younger, more informally structured, and offer fewer publicly available statistics, facts, and figures. They also tend to operate in unfamiliar businesses sectors and possess fewer assets to put up as collateral.

Given these challenges, business leaders and policy makers have developed several strategies to broaden SME financing access. These strategies include the establishment of credit information-sharing initiatives that encourage banks to fund SMEs. Other attempts to boost SME financing operations range from public credit guarantees for SME investment to legal reforms that allow movable assets to serve as collateral. In many cases, government initiatives have provided SME funding outside of the bank system by establishing secondary exchanges.