40 years of DAI

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DAI began to grow again, he grew restless, seemingly uninterested in steering the company on the path he had charted. Constant reshuffling of the operating divisions and their leadership in the late 1980s reflected this restlessness: as a founder, Mickelwait approached DAI as a coach might deal with a basketball team that wins some games but loses some close ones, always willing to move players on and off the court until he found a combination that worked. But as of 1991, he hadn’t found it. There were also some external frustrations. A late 1980s push to gain new work from the Japanese development sector had fizzled, and new USAID conflict-of-interest rules stipulated that project designers could not do implementation—a restriction that broke the seamless link between DAI’s “planning” and “executing” capacities. The company also remained snared in the conundrum of having so many of its senior staff occupied with short-term contract assignments that it couldn’t always invest enough time and attention in critical long-term proposals. At heart, though, the problem was simple. Mickelwait was uneasy about the consequences of growth. “I wasn’t very happy with the direction, I wasn’t very happy with the vice presidents, I wasn’t very happy with anything,” he recalled. “It felt to me as though the place had gotten out of control and I couldn’t figure out how to get it back in control.” It was in this state of mind that Mickelwait began thinking about selling the company. ICF Kaiser was a $625 million environmental engineering firm that made its name by doing high-quality consulting work for the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, and had grown rapidly in the late 1980s by acquisition. ICF Kaiser had started getting into the development consulting market and was keenly interested in expanding overseas. Both Mickelwait and Barclay had met executives from ICF over the year, and, given its appetite for growth, they were not surprised when informal overtures started coming in 1989 and 1990. By the end of 1990, just as DAI was settling into its new Bethesda office with a 10year lease, as Barclay recalled, “honorable, but vague” discussions about an acquisition were under way. ICF was barely doing any development work, and despite its “international” name, it was mainly operating in the United States. On the surface, following more than 15 other acquisitions, DAI looked to them like a nice fit. That fall, Mickelwait formally turned over dayto-day management of the company to Barclay. The Board named Barclay President and Chief Operating Officer and Mickelwait became Chairman and CEO. For Mickelwait, joining ICF’s management team (a condition of the proposed acquisition) looked like an opportunity to play on a much bigger field. Soon, much of Mickelwait’s time was going into the talks with ICF, which were by then growing more focused. It was assumed that the acquisition would be by stock swap; most of the talks revolved around how much autonomy DAI would have. On that 41
DAI’s leadership team in the fall of 1990: (from left) Elliott Morss, Don Mickelwait, Tony Barclay, Ben Stauss, and Max Goldensohn. 42
Page 3 and 4: 2 DAI, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA www.
Page 6 and 7: FOreWOrd There are three reasons we
Page 8 and 9: chapter One Something to believe In
Page 10 and 11: Chapter One Something to Believe In
Page 12 and 13: Development By 1979, the notion tha
Page 14 and 15: It was Charles Franklin “Charlie
Page 16 and 17: law in Delaware, where many small c
Page 18 and 19: ects in Africa. Hatch held a newly
Page 20 and 21: Most staff members who joined DAI i
Page 22 and 23: tise, energy, and especially money.
Page 24 and 25: Barclay encountered Charlie Sweet,
Page 26 and 27: after Barclay. In early 1978, he be
Page 28 and 29: norm after this. The offering docum
Page 30 and 31: gathered in the well-appointed surr
Page 32 and 33: Chapter Two Learning by Doing, 1981
Page 34 and 35: spending, and demand in the technic
Page 36 and 37: several senior managers, including
Page 38 and 39: Back on the Growth Path Don Mickelw
Page 40 and 41: second was that the firm was ready
Page 42 and 43: spurs and become assets in the firm
Page 44 and 45: A Different Direction By 1981, soon
Page 46 and 47: in rural enterprise development and
Page 48 and 49: cided to begin providing annual cas
Page 52 and 53: front, it seemed likely that ICF wo
Page 54 and 55: Chapter Three The Fresh Faces of De
Page 56 and 57: household word. USAID had commissio
Page 58 and 59: epublics. For the work in Poland, D
Page 60 and 61: tion. Calculating the growing impor
Page 62 and 63: to development policy, but no chang
Page 64 and 65: to realizing Mickelwait’s vision
Page 66 and 67: in the forefront, serving an unprec
Page 68 and 69: find alternatives as long as the Go
Page 70 and 71: Transition These successes and fail
Page 72 and 73: Mickelwait knew that Barclay had in
Page 74 and 75: Chapter Four Farther and Faster, 20
Page 76 and 77: Barclay could not have known then t
Page 78 and 79: Tactical deployment of grants was t
Page 80 and 81: DAI on track to cross the $100 mill
Page 82 and 83: ECIAfrica as a reliable service pro
Page 84 and 85: highly successful. Said Abu Hijleh,
Page 86 and 87: able expertise in federal procureme
Page 88 and 89: When new projects first appeared in
Page 90 and 91: Transformation and Transition The e
Page 92 and 93: to improve as soon as this change o
Page 94 and 95: Chapter Five Pulling Together, 2005
Page 96 and 97: in the ESOP were distributed throug
Page 98 and 99: Ownership, however, could be figura
Page 100 and 101:
advantage, USAID would favor a comp
Page 102 and 103:
As Jim Boomgard noted, “Developme
Page 104 and 105:
governments on all levels to better
Page 106 and 107:
In his role as COO, empowered by Ba
Page 108 and 109:
the mid- and late 2000s, the compan
Page 110 and 111:
the mid-1990s, DAI had begun to ext
Page 112 and 113:
immense—and DAI’s projects are
Page 114 and 115:
ard Winkler. Few will dispute that
Page 117:
DAI Advancing Human Prosperity
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