40 years of DAI

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Chapter Three The Fresh Faces of Development, 1992–1999 45
A smiling Jean Gilson (center) at a DAI company picnic. 46 It seemed like a classic 1980s success story. A young banker in one of the nation’s top financial institutions had just helped engineer a large leveraged buyout. It was the fall of 1986, and the young banker in question was Jean Gilson. After the celebrations were over, Gilson returned to her hotel room and switched on the television to learn that the transaction would put hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people out of work. She knew she had to make a change in her life. “Exciting as that time was, I really felt like I wanted to make a difference,” she later recalled. Gilson entered graduate school in international relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and was soon at DAI, where she was one of the fresh faces who helped the company break new ground in the 1990s. DAI’s core competencies—dating from the Strategies study—were grounded in rural development and smallholder agriculture. Although its technical scope had broadened considerably in its second decade, the company had remained focused on its traditional client, USAID, and the geographic regions its leaders knew best and cared most about: Asia in Mickelwait’s case and Africa in Barclay’s. But as the new decade began, the development landscape was changed dramatically by the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communist political and economic systems across Central Europe and Eurasia. These changes and mounting political challenges to its mission in the United States substantially affected USAID itself and began to reshape the market in which DAI operated. No one had foreseen the full extent of these transitions, but DAI proved nimble, eager to learn, and willing to adapt. That made all the difference. Small, Medium-Sized, and Micro Enterprise Development Like Gilson, Jim Boomgard brought experience to DAI that positioned the firm to adapt successfully to new demands for new kinds of technical expertise. Fresh from writing up the lessons learned during his tenure as Chief of Party in Central Java, Boomgard began to immerse himself in “microenterprise,” a relatively new term that would eventually become a
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 50 and 51: DAI began to grow again, he grew re
Page 52 and 53: front, it seemed likely that ICF wo
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
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governments on all levels to better
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In his role as COO, empowered by Ba
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the mid- and late 2000s, the compan
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the mid-1990s, DAI had begun to ext
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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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