The Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation  announces the exhibit “Kennedy and Muñoz Marín: Shared Dreams” at the second level of the Plaza shopping center Americas in Hato Rey which begins October 6. The exhibit, consisting of photographs, documents and memorabilia, explores the close friendship between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the former governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, as part of the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary dinner and concert at the White House with renowned cellist Pablo Casals.

“Kennedy and Muñoz Marín: Shared Dreams” also presents the significance of the visit to Puerto Rico by President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, in November 1961 when they spent the night at La Fortaleza.

The exhibition, which will remain open during regular shopping center will feature a mini-series of acoustic concerts with music students of art schools in different municipalities, Escuela Libre de Música and the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico teacher who will perform repertoire Casals and Rafael Hernández. These mini-concerts will take place inside the premises on Thursdays at 7 p.m.

“Kennedy and Muñoz Marín: Shared Dreams” will be located on the second floor across from the store Tous store in what was the Bared jewelry store. For more information call 787-755-7979 extension 22 or 39 - or through www.flmm.org.

Merck's Barceloneta site is celebrating its 40th anniversary as the company's first manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico. The site began operations in 1971, with the production of active pharmaceutical ingredient for hypertension medicines that became the backbone of Merck's cardiovascular franchise. Since then, the Barceloneta site has grown consistently with each passing decade and this year it was selected as a global Merck manufacturing center of excellence.

In 1984, Barceloneta began to manufacture human ivermectine, the active ingredient of Mectizan®, a medicine that helps prevent river blindness, a disease that affects millions of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since 1987, Merck has donated this product for the treatment of tens of millions of persons throughout the world. Mectizan’s active ingredient was manufactured at Barceloneta for well over a decade.

Merck Barceloneta is an example of the company's commitment to the protection of the environment. Since the 1980s, the site has earned multiple awards from the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, the P.R. Aqueduct and Sewers Administration and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“We are very proud of the job our employees have done over the past 40 years. Their dedication and drive enabled Merck to meet the demand throughout the world for our products and made us a world class facility,” said Edwin Rodríguez, plant manager. “The selection of our site as a center of excellence for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredient for Merck shows how our commitment and excellent teamwork have resulted in achievements for our company that all of us can feel proud of,” concluded Rodríguez. For more information on Merck visit www.merck.com or www.msd.com.pr.

Doral Bank announced its newly created program, Mujeres d Éxito (Women of Success), directed to propel the professional and economic development of the Puerto Rican woman. The program, with an investment of $1 million during its first year, will have three principal components, each designed for women of different socioeconomic levels and stages of their professional and entrepreneurial development.

The program includes Internado Doral, an Internship program for college students in alliance with the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón and Universidad del Turabo. A total of 10 students will participate of the internship each year. The first five students started their internships this week. Fondo Doral, in alliance with Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico, will establish the development of micro-loan programs in nonprofit organizations specialized in aiding low-income women. The Fund begins the first year with Doral’s endorsement of $100,000. Despegue Empresarial- is an entrepreneurial project that will assign $50,000 to five small businesses, all managed by women who demonstrate growth potential. From the total, $25,000 will be granted; the remaining $25,000 will be allotted in the form of a loan specially designed for the program, with much more flexible terms than the ones prevailing in the market. Doral will relocate the repayment of these loans to Fondo Doral. 

According to data provided by the economist Vicente Feliciano of Advantage Business Consulting, and quoting the Census and the Department of Labor, women constitute 54 percent of the Puerto Rican population and 45 percent of the Island’s labor force. Likewise, the number of women as head of family has increased 475 percent since 1970; nowadays one in every three families is led by a woman.

An external advising committee composed of recognized entrepreneurial women will be in charge of the selection of the businesses for Despegue Empresarial. The committee will be composed by Hilary Hattler, president at Telemundo PR; Carla Haeussler, president at Carla’s Sweets; María Teresa Szendrey, Partner at Fiddler, González & Rodríguez; CPA Dervin Cabassa, Senior Tax Manager at Scherrer Hernández & Co.; Ysa de Jesús, co-founder of Alive, Ileana Font, founding partner of LIH; and Lucienne Gigante, SVP of Marketing and Public Relations at Doral Bank. For information, go to www.doralbank.com/mujeresdexito