Douglas McArthur Choy Franco
President and CEO
ThinkPanama Inc.

A business graduate from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, Douglas Choy began his career at JCPenney where he graduated from the JCPenney management training program and gained a tremendous foundation and acquired stealth solid business skills in all areas of business management.

“The management training that I received at JCPenney, at the time the No. 3 Retailer in the U.S., has become the solid foundation that shaped my work ethic and sound business skills for the rest of my career and armed me with excellent analytical business skills.”

Douglas Choy became a retail expert and worked as a corporate buyer for Universal Studios Florida; where he was able to gain extensive experience in product development of MCA Universal toys and licensing for movie products with MCA Universal, Nickelodeon, and other major studio networks brands.

“Working at Universal designing toys for movies like Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, E.T., and at the beginning of the Nickelodeon revolution was a dream come true, I felt like a kid working in a candy factory, but then again, the business skills that I acquired from inventory management in the highly competitive retail markets molded my future for what I am today”

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Douglas Choy also worked for Upper Deck International as Latin America Director of Marketing & Sales for Upper Deck trading cards. That allowed him to work directly with the sports leagues like Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, and World Cup Soccer.

“Michael Jordan was hot worldwide; everybody knew who Michael Jordan was…this allowed the NBA and licensees companies like Upper Deck to break into new Latin American markets.This experience, again, was like a kid working in the dream world of being around sports celebs and having access to center court in exhibition games played at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City where San Antonio Spurs was playing Houston Rockets and sitting next to Grant Hill for lunch at the hotel…but again, it all translated to licensing, products, events, and opening Latin America as a market for U.S. leagues & sports licensees.”

Douglas Choy became an expert in Latin America. He has been mentioned in several business magazines including an article in Latin Trade magazine and quoted as an expert in the region. Today, he runs the marketing firm he founded Global Branding Group and has designed and strategized the success for many brands globally in the United States, Europe and Latin America. He has also played a key role in promoting Panama internationally. Some of the recent brands built by GBG, spearheaded and powered by Douglas Choy include: Prima Panama, Prima Paradise magazine, 4W magazine, Coupon Book, Natura Development, Tropical Pathways, Latitude 8, and residential community developments like: Rio Mar Luxury Beach Community, Casa Grande, Las Nubes, Los Pozos, among others. His company Global Branding Group has grown steadily out of Panama and today they also function as Project Managers managing from A to Z the master plan design process and development of residential communities and resort hotels.

ThinkPanama.com is his idea, he founded the company and he brought together top experts in several industries to create what he visualizes will become the number 1 Real Estate, Investment, Travel & Tourism portal for Panama. Already the site recently launched has received thousands of visitors and registered hundreds of thousands of page views.

“We will continue to add technology, valuable contents and features to ThinkPanama.com, and it will become a very valuable Information source and a Personalized Investment tool for Investors, and Travel related services planning assistance for individual travelers or group conventions considering Panama as a possible destination”.

At 42 he finds himself enjoying what he enjoys the most: creating his next global power brand which he feels will become a brand to help promote his country worldwide