Leonidas Bill Emerson

511 Columbia Road NW

Washington, DC 20001
Cell 240-644-3580
Email: led92242@westpost.net
Skype: lbillemerson
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SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS:
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Mr. Emerson brings 30 years of experience as an expatriate manager of internatio
nal (int'l) development, food security, and refugee programs. His work has been
a key part of U.S. government (USG) funded economic growth programs for the U.S
. Agency for Int'l Development (USAID) emergency food feeding programs and refug
ee housing relocation programs in the aftermath of natural disasters and conflic
t/post-conflict areas. For Example, with both the "Shining Path" Guerrilla Conf
lict and "El Nino" floods in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia during the 1980s and 199
0s Mr. Emerson was able to obtain additional food donations from the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture's food stockpiles to be used for direct feeding programs for
up-to-25% as well as monetization for assistance programs. He has successfully
started many new int'l assistance projects, often jointly sponsored activities
with other int'l donor organizations. Mr. Emerson has a successful leadership t
rack record, having managed up to thirty professional full-time staff (expatriat
es and local hires) and 100 short term consultants overseeing multi-million doll
ar trade USAID programs, mainly in Latin America, Eastern Europe/Balkans, Asia,
and the Middle East (Iraq & Afghanistan). Early in his career, Bill Emerson wor
ked as an Agricultural Attache, or as a USG Commissioned Foreign Service Officer
(FSO) in U.S. Embassies in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia where he won
awards for managing people and programs. Most recently, Mr. Emerson has been w
orking as a program manager, working within: (1) a US $40 million (m) Community
Revitalization and Democratic Action (CRDA) Program in former Yugoslavia in 2004
-07, (2) a $24m USAID-funded Serbian Agri-Business Project in 2007-08, (3) a $15
0m Iraqi "Tijara" trade and business development program in 2009, (4) the $70m
USAID Trade and Accession Facilitation for Afghanistan (TAFA) program in 2009/10
, and (5) started up the Agence Franeaise de Developpement 8m Euro funded Hortic
ultural Cooperative Development Project (HCDP) for the Afghan Ministry of Agricu
lture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL).
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LANGUAGE(S): ENGLISH-Native Speaker; SPANISH-Fluent = U.S. Foreign Service Insti
tute (FSI) rating 4 Speaking (S)-4 Reading (R)-4; PORTUGUESE-Good FSI Rating S-2
R-3; FRENCH-Fair FSI S-1+ R-2+; and SERBO-CROATIAN-POOR, FSI S- 1, R-1.
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EDUCATION:
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Ph.D. Program-ABD, Economics Department, University of Madrid, Spain, 1980-82
M.S., Agricultural & Resource Economics Degree, University of Maryland, College
Park, USA, 1977
B.A., Biology Major, and Liberal Arts Degree, University of the South, "Sewanee"
TN, USA, 1975
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GEOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE: Lived in and/or traveled to work in the following countri
es: Afghanistan, Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica
, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Indi
a, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Pe
ru, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Thailand, the USA, and Zimbabwe.
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SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
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** CHIEF TECHNICAL ADVISOR, Firm Level Assistance Group (FLAG), Chief Technical
Advisor, HCDP Pgm., Ag. Min., 2010 - Present
-- PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Managing rural food security problems with the Afghan G
overnment (Gov't) and int'l donors. Under HCDP set up technical assistance and
subsidized loans under the Agence Franeaise de Developpement. (ADP), as administ
ered through the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock (MAIL). Sta
rted up program and designed roll out of HCDP by MAIL's International Coordinati
on Office with an 8m Euro budget. Unfortunately, Afghan, American, and French t
eams have not been paid for many months due to GIRoA banking problems.

** TEAM/RESULTS LEADER, Chemonics, USAID Trade Accession & Facilitation for Afgh
an. Pgm., 2009 - 10
-- FOOD SECURITY: Worked with int'l food donors and small farm associations pr
oducing foods for local markets, particularly in remote areas perennially subjec
t to drought, poor crops, bad transport, malnutrition, and hunger.
-- FARM ASSOCIATION FORMATION & STRENGTHENING: Worked with small and medium ent
erprises (SMEs) producing foods, small farmers, food importers, and the Governme
nt of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA) for facilitating food distribu
tion to areas plagued with hunger and malnutrition.

-- RURAL ASISTANCE GROUPS: Organized many training activities and business supp
ort training modules that address small farmer problems, family feeding programs
, "women, infant, and children (WIC)" groups to nutritionally feed those in need
. .

** AGRICULTURAL TRADE & AID MANAGER, AECOM/Louis Berger, Agric'l Unit Mgr., Int'
l Food Security, USAID Tijara Pgm., Iraq, 2008 - 09
-- IRAQ GOV'T & PRIVATE SECTOR AG. & FOOD AIDE ADVISOR: Worked with the Ministr
ies of Agriculture in the capital and provinces to ensure proper food aid distri
bution in areas where transportation had been cut off by warfare. .
-- KURDISH FARM & NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT PROJECT: Spent most productive time in Ir
aq's autonomous Kurdish area working with Small farmers and food suppliers that
already had small markets, but needed a little help to boost output quality and
quantity. Facilitated SME loans by developing business plans and loan applicati
ons.
-- SUSTAINABILITY: These projects have proven to be sustainable inasmuch as a
bout 75% of the market has been supplied by more expensive imports from Turkey.
Local producers were able to easily compete with the high priced imports, once
they had improved their quality and worked out supply sales contracts with broke
rs and/or end-buyers (e.g., arranging sales contracts with the fast growing larg
er supermarkets in Kurdistan).

** DEPUTY CHIEF OF PARTY (DCOP), Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI), Serbian Ag

ri-Business Project 2007 - 08
-- PROJECT PROPOSAL: Provided "hands-on" help to USAID consultants to design p
rogram and later helped DAI to draft its winning proposal. For example, some of
the RAISE Plus companies submitting bids did not choose dairy sector to work on
as a value chain to work with, whereas Mr. Emerson knew by experience that USAI
D was interested in the dairy sector. He also wrote much of the input in DAI's
proposal for the Project.
-- AGRIBUSINESS FOOD SUPPLIES: Worked with a large number of organizations to
select the ones with the most chance for success and sustainability. Drafted pr
oject proposals and followed up with Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) reports to
support food donations, farmer loans, and training. The farm food supply chains
supplied both the needy and higher income consumers inasmuch as almost 500,000
Serbian refugees from Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia were provided food, farm input
s, and other feed security type of assistance
-- PERSONAL MGT.: Worked with 2 sub-contractors, Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) and
Int'l Relief and Development (IRD) who had field offices in southern and norther
n Serbia. Directed the hiring, training and managing of 25 Serbian employees, a
nd about 30 U.S. and Serbian workers under Short Term Technical Assignments (STT
A).

** ECONOMIST - DAI, Economist (Short-Term), Local Gov't & Community Development/

S&E, USAID/Kabul, 2007
-- LGCD/S&E PROJECT PROPOSALS: Work centered on quickly evaluating virtually hu
ndreds of SMEs and agribusiness proposals submitted to LGCD. Had to quickly eva
luate if the Afghani project proposals were viable, had value-added, was demand
driven (i.e., already had a market), and was sustainable. Working as a team wit
h 3 other agricultural economists, to verify if the remedy proposed to the food
shortage situation was favorable, could grow, and was sustainable. Afterwards,
the group quickly wrote up some $5m in project proposals that were approved by t
he USAID Supervisory Official (COTR).
-- GIROA ANDS WORKING GROUP: Most notable assignment being picked by USAID to
work directly with President Karzai's Chief Economic Advisor Dr. Ishaq Nadiri ab
out GIRoA policies under the then Afghanistan National Development Strategy (AND
S), which was often referred to for most development programs. A key part of Mr
. Emerson's work was writing a paper and presentation as a deliverable for Dr. N
adiri, which he said helped him to organize his ideas about removing bureaucrat
ic requirements that were impeding growth and credit for agribusinesses and smal
l farmers to expand food production. At the time, Dr. Nadiri often was very eff
ective in GIRoA Cabinet meetings in reducing import/export tariffs and other req
uirements hurting emergency food imports for the poor and needy. Unfortunately
, since that time, Dr. Nadiri's influence has waned, import and export tariffs h
ave risen sharply such that bureaucratic requirements for more papers to conduct
business has become much more burdensome for importers and food distribution or
ganizations.
-- PERSONAL MGT.: As requested by the COP, supervised some local staff & consu
ltants for food supply work.
** COUNTRY DIRECTOR: Firm Level Assistance Group (FLAG), Country Director USAID
Serbia & Montenegro, 2004-07
-- PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Managed about 350 projects, being mostly technical assi
stance and grants of equipment for farm cooperatives, and/or related agricultura
l actives related to refugee groups and the poor most in-need of assistance. Ob
tained third party support from other donors (GTZ, IFC, EU Funds, Serbian Gov't
Funds, local government funds, etc.), which amounted to about US$12m of other do
nor funds for FLAG projects. FLAG Serbia project funds from USAID under CRDA am
ounted to about US$10m, which was spent on these 350 projects. The local matchi
ng funds averaged 60% to 70% for these same projects/activities. Of note, alth
ough most projects under the CRDA Program were to cover the costs of over 100 Sh
ort Term Technical Assistance (STTA) consultants, and FLAG also procured special
ized agricultural equipment and did construction of various building facilities
(e.g., green houses, cold storage, fruit and vegetable packaging lines, etc.).
The farmers often said that they had had already a lot of training from foreign
experts, but what they needed was for special equipment, or a greenhouse, or som
ething to help physically boost their crop production; once verified as realisti
c, Mr. Emerson made a case with USAID to procure the equipment (e.g., inexpensiv
e vegetable packaging machines), which was later often used to show visitors and
write up success stories.
-- REGIONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKING GROUP: Mr. Emerson managed and often chaired t
he Serbian and Montenegrin Regional Committees of the U.S Embassies in Serbia (a
nd Kosovo), Montenegro, which later grew to include Bosnia, and Macedonian agric
ultural representatives. The participating organization often joined together
into doing projects were tied with other int'l donors; this amount to about US $
5 m. in projects from the regional agricultural committee. FLAG managed some 3
0 joint activities with these other donor organizations, the largest of which wa
s the int'l Food Safety "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point" (HACCP) acc
reditation for 100 food processors throughout Serbia, which received much match
ing funds from companies receiving the accreditation. Likewise, third party con
tributors such as the Int'l Finance Corp., and various EU program funds were don
ated in for the Serbian HACCP program.
-- AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES & TRADE ASSOCIATIONS: FLAG both formed new cooper
atives and worked with existing coops and trade associations to reach a level of
80 well-functioning farm cooperatives and SME trade associations by the time th
e program ended. FLAG provided TA, business plans, marketing strategies, and of
ten donated key equipment to improve the production and selling of fruits, veget
ables, fish, dairy products, beef, hogs, sheep, goats, honey, field crops, snail
s, and handicrafts. Most of these cooperatives are still functioning, and the m
ajority claim to still be growing.
-- COOPERATIVE UNIONS: FLAG legally incorporated larger cooperative union organ
izations that could reach towards better economies of scale and use key grants o
f equipment, such as cold storage areas, including Ultra Low Oxygen (ULO) atmosp
heric storage areas for apples. The donors and stakeholders developed 6 functio
ning "Cooperative Unions" out of combining coops producing similar products. Th
ey often leveraged donations from the Ministry of Agriculture (e.g., gov't donat
ions of ULO Cold Storage Facilities) so to assist cooperatives to combine buying
and selling products together in larger volumes so to become more profitable vi
a economies of large scale, such as growing into a Serbian Apple Cooperative Uni
on with its own logo and trade mark.
-- SME LOANS: Worked with Pro-Credit Bank to facilitate a total loan portfolio
for SME/Micro-enterprises included US $5 million of commercial loans plus 5m Eur
os of subsidized loans for 1,600 families and 600 SMEs.
-- PERSONNEL & BUDGET MANAGEMENT: Managed 8 FLAG Expat and Serbian national emp
loyees giving them frequent training so that they could advance in their careers
. Managed FLAG Serbia's $550,000 annual overhead budget, in regular coordinati
on with the FLAG USA Office.

** CONSULTANT, Int'l Trade Org. Country Director & Consultant, Various Organizat
ions (Cosecha Grande NGO, Lemos Brazil Corp., Itochu Japanese Trading House, PS
Int'l USA), Americas & Balkans, 1996-03
-- INT'L TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Developed a multiple food feeding programs in La
tin America, Africa, and the Balkans, where conflicts and post conflict situatio
ns were resulting in food scarcities. Worked with int'l food donation groups a
nd gov'ts to supply foods competitively priced with quality according to the cli
ents' specifications, and with a consistent timely delivery.
-- POST CONFLICT STABILIZATION PROGRAMS: Worked with the contractors under Worl
d Bank, FAO, WFO and NGO's programs, including emergency programs Central Americ
a, Peru, Colombia, Bosnia, and Kosovo in post-conflict situations. Work include
d projects with Int'l Financial Institutions, the USDA, and USAID programs funde
d by USDA owned stocks used for PL-480 donations that were sold or monetized to
produce funds for small farm associations. In addition, we worked with small to
medium sized food processors with a SME development approach.

** BRANCH CHIEF, (FSO/HQ), Food Aid Office, Foreign Agric'l Service (FAS), U.S.
Dept. of Ag., (USDA) Wash. DC, 1995
-- INT'L DEV. PROGRAMS: Worked with U.S. and foreign trade assn.'s to develop f
ood donation programs to countries in need under the USDA's 1954 Public Law 480
Title's I, II, and III programs to supply people in need, and those most at risk
(WIC-Women, Infants, and Children {and lactating mothers}). Successfully obtai
ned food donations and coordinated in the delivery of such food supplies to bene
ficiaries via the U.S. gov't and int'l organizations (i.e., the World Food Progr
am WFP). For food security, worked with farmer association with the final stage
s of the food supply contracts. Assisted small farm groups and SME farm input
supply companies join these associations and become more profitable via TA, bett
er business plans, trade shows, marketing plans, long term strategic plans, and
cash flow analysis to assist them in obtaining credit to invest further in their
businesses.
-- PROFESSION STAFF DEVELOPMENT: Managed 7 Junior Professional staff (i.e., usu
ally students right out of college with MS or MBA degrees) who learned how to ma
nage of about 20 int'l trade assn.'s financed by $10m to $300m annually of USDA
export promotion budgets. Managed an internship program for private sector & hi
gher education graduates.

** REGIONAL AGRICULTURAL ATTACHE, First Secretary, Foreign Service Officer (FSO)

, USAID Detail, US Embassies in Per, Ecuador, and Bolivia, 1990-94
-- FOOD AID DONATIONS AND RELATED ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS: Managed about US $30m i
n Public Law 480 (PL-480) Title 1 and 3 donations and 20-30 year loans for deliv
ering mostly wheat to Peru and Bolivia to monetize the sale of these commodities
and generate local currency funds for agricultural and SME projects. Used PL-4
80 generated monies to do dairy projects, SME TA and equipment donation activate
.
-- INT'L CREDIT: Directed USDA funded development & export sales financing for
150 SMEs and trade associations.
-- PEACE CORPS: Provided specific projects and work sites in Ecuador for about
70 the Peace Corps to work in Ecuador working with fish farms, SME processed foo
d producers, small farm association and their supply companies. Also directed a
bout 80 STTA consultants to visit the Peace Corp sites (time permitting) to assi
st SMEs.
-- PERSONNEL MGT.: Supervised 20 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs) in 4 U.S. Emb
assies and Consular offices in Peru (Lima), Bolivia (La Paz) and Ecuador (Quito
and Guayaquil). Managed the short term assignments of 50 USDA officials and 25
consultants, often focusing in assisting food aid, tropical food sales. Gave sup
port, direction and overall representation for USDA pest control programs via th
e USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) offices based in all 3
countries. Sometimes also covered Colombia when Ag. Attache was absent.

** BRANCH CHIEF, (FSO at Headquarters), Int'l Assistance under PL-480 Office, F

AS, USDA, Washington DC, 1986-89
-- INT'L PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Managed Joint USAID USDA PL-480 Title 1 and Title
III programs with specific countries designated for food donations and follow-up
utilization of funds generated from the sale of these USDA owned/stored grain.
Approved USAID Mission proposed PL-480 funded activities as well as suggested o
ther activities for SMEs in about 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin Americ
a.
-- MGT.: Managed 8 full-time professionals and 150 consultants in 5 years. T
ech. assistance budget of US$150 m.

** AGRICULTURAL ATTACHE, Foriegn Service Officer (Ag. Attache/FSO), USAID Detail

, U.S. Embassy, Ecuador (& Part-Time Colombia) 1982-85
-- TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Directed USAID/USDA int'l TA programs, including assis
ting food processors, such as snack producers for potato chips, tomato sauce, an
d improving fruit juice operations via int'l sanitary standards to be able to ex
port to the USA. Brought in shrimp and fresh water fish farming experts, for bo
osting production, quality control, and (somewhat unsuccessfully) minimizing the
impact on the environment.
-- INT'L FINANCE: This included food "aid & trade" investment projects and abou
t $130 million annual allocations of USDA Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) tra
de credits and bank guarantees so to open Letters of Credit (L/Cs).
-- INT'L FOOD ASSISTANCE: Managed $50 m. in joint USAID/USDA food security (PL-
480 Title II direct feeding programs), SME assistance, and related rural develop
ment pgm.'s.
-- PEACE CORPS OPERATIONS: Supervised 35 Peace Corps experts working in agricul
tural & coop development.
-- MGT.: Managed US $10 million in USDA funds for U.S. trade assn's and supervi
sed 5 Foreign Service Nat'l staff.
*** ASSISTANT AGRICULTURAL ATTACHE, Foriegn Service Officer/Agricultural Attache
, FAS/USDA Overseas Office, U.S. Embassy in Spain, 1980-82
-- SCIENTIFIC TA AGREEMENT: Worked with Spanish Agricultural Ministry to reque
sted and supported over 100 U.S. university professors and other experts to do s
hort term assignment in Spain, funded under the US Military Bases Agreement in S
pain (prior to Spain joining NATO). These STTA experts assisted the export of n
ew food processing technologies SME food processors. The University Professors
assisted the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture with replanting orchards, mostly al
monds and citrus groves.
-- REGIONAL TRADE OFFICES: Supervised Expat and Spanish staff and reviewed and
monitored US $3 million budget of the 2 USDA supported regional trade offices i
n Madrid. The American Soybean Association promoted export sales of U.S. soybea
ns and oilseed products to Spain while the U.S. Grains Office promoted U.S. corn
, and sorghum exports.
-- MANAGEMENT: Supervised, recruited, and trained 8 FSN's in the U.S. Embassy.

** INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIST, Fruit & Vegetable Div., Trade Policy Programs, FAS/U
SDA Wash., DC, 1977-79
-- REPORT WRITING: Traveled to work overseas on assignments, authoring 30 publi
cations on development pgm.'s.
-- FARMER MARKETING ASSOCIATIONS: Worked with Florida, California and Mexican f
ruit and vegetable producers to improve crop yields, quality, packaging, and sal
es marketing arrangements with retail supermarket chains.

** AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIST, Coop Research Assistant, Agric'l Extension Service, U

SDA, College Park, Univ. of Maryland, 1975-77.
-- Ag. Extension: USDA Extension work in farm business mgt., improving crop yie
lds, and agri-business loan mgt.
-- SME Food Processors: Developed cash flow analysis, business plans, long-ter
m strategic plans, and loan applications for Maryland agri-businesses for USDA A
gricultural Extension Service Maryland Office.
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REFERENCES:
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1) David Hull, Former Supervisor of Cognizant Technical Officers (CTO's), Gener

al Development Office, USAID, U.S. Embassy, Belgrade, Serbia, Currently Deputy D
irector Latin American & Caribbean (LAC) Office, USAID/Washington DC
-- Contact Information: Address: Ronald Regan Building, USAID, Washington, DC.
Tel. Cell +720-227-5965, Email (official) dhull@usaid.gov, Email (personal pref
erred) daviderichull@hotmail.com
2) James Rudbeck, Retired U.S. Agricultural Attache and Minister Counselor, for
London/UK, Rome/Italy, Buenos Aires/Argentina, and Costa Rica.
-- Contact Information: Address: 101 Potomac Drive, Chocowinity, North Carolina
27817-8811. Telephone: 1-252 946 8342, E-mail: mjrudbeck@cox.net

3) George Pope, Retired U.S. Agricultural Attache and Minister Counselor, for T
okyo/Japan, Brussels/US-EU Mission, Paris/France, Jakarta/Indonesia, and Lagos,
Nigeria.
-- Contact Information: Address: 3070 Pignatelli Crescent, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29
466. Tel: 1-843-881-8875,
Email: georgejpope@bellsouth.net

4) Rajan Gill, Currently Chief Advisor, Local Government and Community Developm
ent/S&E, DAI Kabul. Formerly Chief of Party, America's Development Foundation,
USAID's CRDA-E Program in Serbia,
-- Contact Information: Address: Jovana Subotica 18, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia. Te
l: 1-381-522-277,
-- Email: rgill@yahoo.co.ca
Other contracts provided upon request.