IESC is managed by a core team of development professionals with a vast range of technical and international experience spanning the globe. The breadth of technical expertise and global experience is key to driving effective programming for economic growth worldwide.
Biographies
Thomas Miller is currently the President/CEO of International Executive Service Corps, a non-profit that furnishes expertise to the developing world to train in best business practices. In addition, in 2011, Tom was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be the Chair of the Board of the International Commission on Missing Persons, an internationally acclaimed organization that identifies missing persons in many countries by using DNA-matching and other techniques. In 2009, Tom was President and CEO of the United Nations Association of the U.S. From 2005-08, he served as CEO of Plan International, a large nongovernmental organization that works in 66 countries to improve the lives of children in developing countries. A 29-year career diplomat, Tom's experience in the Foreign Service spanned many continents. From 2001-04, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Greece, where he focused on the security concerns of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and domestic counter-terrorism. From 1999-2001, as U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, he worked on helping the country recover after a devastating war. From 1997-99, he was Special Coordinator for the Cyprus negotiations (rank of ambassador). He was also posted to Thailand, Greece two other times, and the State Department in Washington, where he focused on North Africa, the Middle East, and counter-terrorism issues.
Tom serves on the boards of D.A.R.E. (an anti-drug organization in schools), Partnership for a Secure America (promoting bipartisanship in U.S. foreign policy), and Lampsa (a Greek hotel company). He was also recently selected to serve on AARP’s National Policy Council. He is the recipient of many honors and awards as well as honorary degrees. A native of the Chicago area, Ambassador Miller has five degrees from the University of Michigan: a PhD in Political Science (1975), Master's in both Political Science (1973) and Asian Studies (1972), and a BA in Political Science (1969). In addition, in 2003 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree when he was also the Commencement Speaker.
Jason Jaecksch is a senior finance and accounting executive who currently serves as Vice President of Finance and Administration for IESC. He brings over ten years of solid expertise in managing all aspects of the financial, human resources, information & communications technology and administrative departments for non-profit organizations. As the key financial director at IESC, Jason is in charge of all major financial reporting and has been responsible for reviewing and executing contracts funding multimillion dollar programs in Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. He strategizes with the cost proposal manager to develop appropriate pricing models; is responsible for all financial reporting to the Board and other senior management officials; responsible for the maintenance of internal controls and accounting systems; plays a key role in IESC’s organizational affairs; and serves as chief system administrator. He also serves as team leader in the recruiting and training of staff and headed the successful transition of the corporate accounting and finance department during IESC’s strategic relocation from Stamford, CT to Washington, DC. Prior to joining IESC in 2005, Jason successfully managed the operations of the largest Migrant Head Start program in the country, where he was responsible for reengineering the network infrastructure to increase data flow and communication; creating various administrative departments for increased efficiency and operational effectiveness; and initiating the redesign of the employee benefits package which led to an annual cost savings of over $1 million. Having facilitated numerous contract award negotiations from various funding sources for IESC, Jason is fully conversant in U.S. Government and other donor funding agencies’ finance and compliance regulations. Jason holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Frostburg State University.
Tarek Nabhan is a private sector development specialist with over 30 years of experience implementing technical assistance and training programs primarily on USAID-funded initiatives. During his career with IESC, Mr. Nabhan spent over 20 years in Egypt managing the delivery of more than 2,000 technical assistance projects to over 1,300 firms, associations and other institutions. He has been responsible for the delivery of a wide range of services to private firms and public institutions, including training programs, technical assistance, business linkages & trade facilitation, marketing assistance, grants programs, trade show/trade missions, consulting assistance, quality assurance, and venture development. Mr. Nabhan has developed, launched and managed programs around the world in countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Macedonia, Serbia, Cyprus, Bahrain and Iraq.
Charles Conconi, IESC Vice President, is a management consultant who has successfully developed and implemented multi-million dollar projects in Asia, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He brings substantial experience in strategic growth, value chains, change management, private sector development, and economic reform to IESC. As a key executive at Nathan Associates, Inc., he demonstrated dynamic management expertise, successfully leading competitiveness initiatives in Croatia and Sri Lanka. As an independent consultant, he helped improve the business enabling environment and the competitiveness of the Turkish-Cypriot economy. He holds an advanced degree in International Affairs from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, DC and a BA from Columbia University. He was awarded a Graduate School of Foreign Service Academic Scholarship as well as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Fellowship.
Sujeewa De Alwis is a small and medium enterprise (SME) development expert with over 20 years of experience in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and Pacific. He has particular expertise in the areas of helping firms increase technological sophistication and finding new markets. At the policy level, he has worked in the USAID’s first competitiveness project to bring together different stake holders of the economy and increase the competitiveness of the nation. He was instrumental in forming the eight industry clusters, and in establishing a tri-part national competitiveness council comprised of members from the industry, government and labor. This includes developing a new productivity policy for Sri Lanka, developing a new trade and export diversification plan and also working with international socio-economic research institutes such as World Economic Forum in ranking nations in their Global Competitiveness Report. He currently serves as an Associate Vice President for Program Operations at IESC, and previously served as the Chief Operational Officer of a $16.6 million project in assisting increasing the international competitiveness of firms in Sri Lanka.
David Hartingh is Associate Vice President for Program Development with IESC. His work is focused upon donor and client funded projects – primarily USAID – in enterprise development, competitiveness and trade. He has more than 13 years of experience including designing, developing, and implementing USAID and other donor funded projects under cooperative agreements, grants and contracts. He has technical expertise in small and medium enterprise development, tourism, international trade, export promotion and business development services, franchising, and retail and local economic development. His experience prior to serving in this role with IESC includes launching and subsequently selling his own small enterprise; managing a USAID-funded international trade and investment program operating in 37 countries; working for an international trade consulting firm; and working as a franchise consultant. He is a native English speaker and fluent in Spanish. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from George Washington University.
Nancy Metzger is Practice Leader for the IESC Financial Services Division. With more than 15 years of private sector development and management experience, she brings a wealth of practical knowledge and technical expertise to IESC. Her areas of practice include: capital markets, financial services, commercial law, corporate governance, non-bank financial institutions (fund) development, and financial sector regulation for developing economies. She also has in-depth change management and organizational effectiveness experience, including knowledge management practice leadership. Nancy joined IESC from SNV, the Netherlands Development Organization, where she served as Deputy Regional Director for Latin America from 2009-2011. Prior to that, she was Senior Project Officer in the Capital Markets and Corporate Governance Department at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group from 2006-2008. From 1995-2005, she was Vice President of Financial Markets International, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in capital markets development. Nancy speaks English, Spanish, French, and Russian and has extensive overseas management and technical expert experience in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa. She holds an undergraduate degree in Russian language from Georgetown University and a law degree from George Washington University.
Javed Hamid is a Senior Advisor for IESC. He joined IESC in April 2007 after a long career at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. At IFC Mr. Hamid was a member of the Management Group and Director for the East Asia and Pacific Region. Mr. Hamid serves on the Boards of companies in China and Pakistan and is a non-resident Fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He has been a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum as well as a contributor to the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, and many academic journals. His advanced degrees were awarded by the Harvard Business School and Cambridge University.
Al Schlachtmeyer is a former key executive of Hewitt Associates. Reporting to Hewitt’s President and CEO, he served as the firm’s Global Practice Leader for communication, education and training services. With more than 30 years experience in the human resources communication field, Mr. Schlachtmeyer has been involved with many innovative, award-winning initiatives for a wide spectrum of organizations. An accomplished trainer, he also served Hewitt as a senior communication strategy resource for organizational change and global equity initiatives. He is a regular contributor to business and professional publications as well as a featured speaker at such forums as the American Management Association, the Society for Administrative Management, the Erisa Industry Committee (ERIC), and the Council for Communication Management. He is a course developer and faculty member for World at Work (the American Compensation Association). Al has consulted with small and medium-sized overseas enterprises, governmental entities and non-governmental organizations on strategic business and marketing issues. More recently, he has concentrated on economic development as a consultant for the International Executive Service Corps, Freedom House and Pragma.