Fred Monk, Founder & Chairman

Fred Joseph Monk
June 2006

Fred J. Monk is president of the South Carolina Export Consortium, a fee-based not for profit partnership that helps small to medium-sized companies become involved in international trade.

Founded in 1997, The Export Consortium focuses on business intelligence, market identification, market research, export training and business coaching for small to medium-sized companies in South Carolina, in the United States and abroad.

The Export Consortium also works with economic developers to develop strategies that help them with both existing industry development and attracting new investment by looking a multi-market potential in site locations.

The Export Consortium works in partnership with the University of South Carolina, Clemson University and Francis Marion University, where it utilizes graduate students and undergraduates as business analysts.

Fred is the former business editor of The State newspaper (from 1981-1997) and worked at The State and The State-Record Co. for 28 years before joining the consortium in November 1997. He has followed and written about South Carolina’s international business growth for three decades.

He is a 1971 journalism graduate of the University of South Carolina. He served as president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 1986-87 and served on its board of governors from 1978 to 1988. He is a former president of the Central South Carolina chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He serves on the partnership board of the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

For five years, he wrote a column for the Greater Columbia Business Monthly and he has written numerous free-lance articles for news organizations and publications ranging from Reuters to Europe magazine.

He is chairman of the Columbia World Affairs Council, which he helped create and which has helped the Midlands of South Carolina develop an international awareness and international relationships. He was involved in forging South Carolina’s sister state relationships with Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany; and Queensland, Australia; and Columbia’s sister cities in Kaiserslautern, Germany; Cluj-Napoca, Romania; and Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

He is a fellow of the Atlanta-based Society of International Business Fellows, a group of 450 CEOs, senior executives, principals and partners of companies and organizations involved in international business development. He serves on the Governor’s Commission for International Agreements and Cooperation and is president of the Midlands International Trade Association.

In 1994, the Committee of 100 named Fred Columbia’s International Ambassador of the Year and in 1996 he was honored as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Media Advocate of the Year in South Carolina. In 1998, he received the first International Community Ambassador Award of the Columbia International Festival for his work in building bridges between the community and internationals. And in 1998 he was honored by the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business’s International MBA program for his support of the IMBA program. In 1999 he was the recipient of the Global Vision Award of the Columbia World Affairs Council and also received the Vision Award by the South Carolina Black Business Network.

He chaired the City of Columbia’s Technology Advisory Board and helped institute the first Summit on the New Economy in Columbia. He was a member of the board of the Columbia Development Corp., the City of Columbia’s economic development arm, and co-chaired the city’s North Columbia Master Plan Committee. He is treasurer of the Governor’s School for Science and Math Foundation, serves on the board of the Palmetto Development Group, a non-profit organization aimed at helping create affordable housing in the state, and served on the South Carolina High School Redesign Commission.

He is a member of the Columbia Rotary Club and serves on the board of the Capital City Club. A Navy veteran of Viet Nam, he retired after 32 years in the military as a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina Air National Guard, where he was chief of public affairs.

He is married to Virginia Bedford, a Columbia attorney, entrepreneur and gardener, and has two sons. He is a member of St. Martin’s-In-The-Fields Episcopal Church, where he has served on the vestry and as senior warden, chairman of the St. Martin’s Foundation, chair of its capital campaign and as rank amateur junior boys’ basketball coach.