40 years of DAI

highly successful. Said Abu Hijleh, who had
been mentored by Winkler and the others, took
over Chief of Party responsibility in 2001, and
proved adept both at client relationships and
as a mentor himself to the young, energetic
Palestinian staff. Continuity, commitment,
and superior performance were the hallmarks
of DAI’s presence in Palestine, so the formal
registration of a company in Ramallah—where
no other U.S. companies had set up shop—was
an organic result of 10 years of experience.
When Winkler, Abu Hijleh, and Barclay formally
opened the office in May 2004, they announced
that this was “intended to signal DAI’s commitment
to the market.”
As the decade went on, Barclay saw that this
global push would involve more than establishing
offices and subsidiaries, and investing
corporate funds to grow the business. He knew
it was equally important to widen the company’s
Washington-centric perspective and make it
more attuned to changes on the development
landscape worldwide. This reorientation was the
guiding principle behind DAI’s first regional staff
conference, held in Belgrade, Serbia, in May
2003. Attended by 135 staff members, more
than half of them based in Europe and Asia, the
conference began without a traditional agenda
formulated in the home office. Instead, in an
“open space” forum, participants volunteered
to lead sessions. Eventually, 54 discussion
groups convened to talk over issues defined in
the field rather than by the home office—a big
step, Barclay ventured, in his efforts to “shift the
center of gravity away from Bethesda.” A similar
conference in Johannesburg later that year
applied the same process and brought staff
together from across Africa as well as from the
home office.
In an effort to “shift
the center of gravity
away from Bethesda,”
Tony Barclay
convened DAI’s first
regional conference,
in Belgrade, Serbia, in
May 2003.
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