Our board members make up the driving force within the GACF for major decisions and new projects. We would like to give you the opportunity to know them, so this article introduces an ongoing series, “Meet Our Board Members,” starting with Rudi Herbst.
Rudi Herbst is a founding member and Vice-Chairman of the German American Cultural Foundation. Rudi got involved with the GACF when two other founding members told him about the Foundation’s goal to add strong cultural and educational components to German-American business relationships. “I immediately decided to be a part of it,” he said.
Herbst’s duties as a member of the GACF board are to help raise awareness of the foundation in the community and help the foundation to grow.
The Challenges of Founding the GACF
Rudi Herbst and the other founding 
members of the GACF faced challenges when they started the Foundation. “As you know, there are several ‘German’ organizations in the city, like the GACC, Goethe Centre, and German School. [When we started] the GAC-Foundation, it was very difficult to get more members since almost everybody thought [we were] a new competitor organization which would take away their sponsors,” Herbst noted. The board worked with these existing German organizations to help them realize that their goals and the goals of the GACF aligned.
Doing Business in America vs. Germany
Herbst moved from Germany to the United States in 1999. In 2005, he founded United Soft Plastics, Inc., where he now serves as President and CEO. In his time doing business with American and German companies, he has noticed differences which may prove valuable for companies establishing international relationships. Germans, he finds, are very technically oriented, trusting facts over skill sets. Their decisions are made from the top, and can be revised at any time. While Germans do prioritize making money in business, they have other values which are also important.
Americans, on the other hand, “are more practical and more risk-oriented based on opportunities.” In his experience, American companies are 100% behind any decision they make, and their main goal is to make money. One recommendation Rudi Herbst offers is that American companies doing business with German companies get decisions in writing to avoid any misunderstandings on either side.
Raising a German Family in the USA
When he moved from Germany, Rudi brought his wife and two children with him. He and his wife have made a concerted effort to raise their children to be bilingual. Herbst notes, “I think each language carries a big part of a culture regardless of the language. By learning a foreign language, a child automatically learns a different culture [and] that things can be seen differently by using different views, names, or perspectives. This means that kids who learn another language are more flexible, more open, and also more sensitive to explore things and situations in their life. All of this will make them stronger, more knowledgeable, and also more secure to handle their own life.”
Herbst recommends that other German-American families take advantage of the cultural resources that the GACF and its supported organizations offer to encourage bilingualism and multiculturalism in their children.
Making Time to Give Back
In addition to his role on the board of the GACF and his role as President and CEO of United Soft Plastics, Herbst is also a board member for GACC South and the Goethe Center. Herbst makes time to attend as many functions for these organizations as his busy schedule allows.
He feels that participation with these organizations gives him new insight into management styles, cultural differences, and decision making tactics of others, which helps him make favorable decisions in his own life.
Herbst is particularly grateful to his wife and children for their support. “Without all that support, I would not have been able to set-up several companies, and I also wouldn’t be a founding member of the GAC-Foundation or a Board member of other organizations.”
In closing, Rudi Herbst wants to emphasize the benefits the German American Cultural Foundation offers to companies and decision makers. The GACF helps support the cultural and language efforts of German organizations throughout the Southeast. By doing this, it enriches individual lives, international trade, and the local cultural landscape.