Finance and International Development - Thomas Downing

Thomas Downing
(US citizen on assignment in Palestine)
Rashmawi Building, 1st Floor, Yasmine Street
Sateh Marhaba, Al Bireh, West Bank, Palestine
tom.downing@comcast.net + 972-599-433-916

Short and long - term advisor in developing countries
Municipal Finance - Private-Sector Promotion - Trade and Investment

SUMMARY

• Effective project manager on complex USAID and World Bank contracts
• Successful technical assignments in several dozen countries
• Private-sector finance experience (15 years)�CFO, controller, international finance
• Public-finance experience (10 years)�Town manager, CFO, investment promotion
• NGO strategy formulation�Turn-around of development organizations; business/NGO alliances; new funding
• Harvard MBA, Fulbright Scholar, graduate-school adjunct faculty
• Languages: Arabic (elementary), French (rusty, but once strong)

Country Experience

Middle East: West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Egypt. Central and Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia. East and Southern Africa: Uganda, South Africa. Asia: Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines. Caribbean: Barbados and OECS. Western Europe. Germany, Switzerland, France, UK, Netherlands, Ireland. North America.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Independent Advisor, Finance & International Development
Washington & overseas, 1997 � present.

Current assigment:

• Team leader, World Bank project in Palestine. Establishing a municipal finance and lending institution in Palestine. Rationalizing intergovernmental fiscal transfers. Twelve-month assignment based in Al Bireh, West Bank.

Increasing the flow of funds to local, regional and national governments.

• Promoted Israeli high-tech investment at a new free-trade zone in Palestine to transfer technology and create jobs.
• Co-authored Trade and Investment Policy of the Government of Egypt with Dr. James Fox et. al. (Cairo, 1999).

Building alliances with the business community to tap new resources, transfer skills, and strengthen programs.

• Enlarged the stock of loan capital in the Uganda Central Bank�s export-financing program by creating incentives for commercial banks to participate.
• To increase productivity and income of farmers in Eastern Europe, induced US-based multinationals to strengthen local distribution channels, provide credit, offer their most technologically advanced products and, on occasion, to advocate policy reform.

Assisting NGOs as they navigate difficult transitions in strategy, programming and funding.

In a year-long engagement, helped a struggling NGO embrace a new and ambitious mission and create the capabilities to deliver on it. Contributed to a remarkable turn-around:

• Created a Development Council of Corporate Partners, with 11 respected US firms as founding members, for joint-venturing, knowledge transfer, policy advocacy and fund-raising.
• Placed funding on a more secure footing. Shifted the appeal from humanitarianism (poverty alleviation) to economic empowerment and private-sector promotion. Moved from a shrinking pool of funding into a growth area. Wrote successful proposal for a multi-million-dollar extension of a core grant.
• Rejuvenated, re-energized and re-launched the organization. Adopted a more expressive name, a new logo, and celebrated a new era with the most successful fund-raising event in the organization�s history.

Meeting the rising expectations of financial transparency. After extended consultancies with multinational businesses to implement post-Enron financial reforms (�Sarbanes-Oxley�), adapted the reform tools to the special circumstances of governmental and nonprofit organizations. The package offers a practical means to achieve financial transparency and demonstrate financial integrity to supporters, program partners and the public. Implemented the tools in a new Palestinian financing institution.

Chief Financial Officer

Atlas Container Corporation, Severn, MD. 2002-2003.www.atlascontainer.com
Rapid-growth family-owned firm. $75mm sales, three manufacturing plants, 400 employees.

Integrated two acquisitions that doubled the size of the company. Improved transparency and controls through training and more extensive use of technology. Instituted comprehensive cash and profit budgeting, and generated daily and weekly scorecards. Trained all employees to detect the �line-of-sight� between their jobs and the health of the enterprise. Administered company�s �open-book� management program of education, recognition, and bonuses.

Note: Entry is out of chronological order. After a year-long assignment in Nigeria was put on extended hold (departure scheduled for the afternoon of September 11, 2001), I returned to the corporate sector for a short period.

Vice President & Sr. Financial Advisor
Chemonics International, Washington, DC. 1992-1997
www.chemonics.com
A leading implementer of development programs in the world�s poor countries.

Wrote winning proposals for USAID projects in Uganda and Russia totaling $18mm.

Guided the Czech state-owned environmental bank (SFZP) to place its lending practices on a sound commercial footing. This enhanced, rather than compromised, its mission of stimulating investment in pollution-abatement facilities. Replaced collateral-based lending with cash-flow based lending. Instituted discounted cash flow evaluation of municipal investment proposals. Adjusted interest rates so that the state bank�s lending complemented, rather than displaced, private commercial lending. Solicited private banks a co-lenders.

Organized and moderated a three-day conference on Financing Municipal Investments in the Environment (Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), attended by state and provincial environmental banks and their municipal borrowers from five neighboring countries.

Turned around a five-year, $10mm USAID project on Black economic empowerment in South Africa:

• Abandoned the labor-intensive, low-impact approach of negotiating procurement opportunities one at a time. Promoted, instead, a broad redirection in procurement policy by South Africa�s conglomerates.
• Drawing on personal contacts, engaged the leaders of the most successful minority-procurement programs in the United States�senior vice presidents and executives of Ford Motor Company, IBM, Kodak, K-Mart, Bell Atlantic, among others, along with the president of the US National Minority Supplier Development Council.
• Took executives to South Africa to publicize the American experience. Organized large conferences, small workshops, individual consultations as well as radio and TV appearances. Prepared and distributed detailed manuals on the inner workings of the US programs.
• Expanded program the second year. Helped the US corporations establish pro-bono internships at their US headquarters for Black South Africans.
• By structuring the program to appeal to the participants� self-interest, attracted all of this talent without incurring substantial cost. Executives supplied their time pro bono. Airline provided free upgrades. South African firms arranged venues.

On the same project, transformed the approach to bringing US franchise opportunities to Black entrepreneurs. When one-on-one negotiations proved slow and costly, encouraged the Washington-based International Franchise Association to hold its annual conference in Johannesburg. Put South Africa on the map in the international franchising community. Brokered the sale of forty franchise licenses to Black-owned firms.

Fulbright Scholar
University of the West Indies, Barbados, 1990-1991.
www.cies.org and www.cavehill.uwi.edu
(On leave from Digital Equipment Corporation, next entry below.)

Designed and taught undergraduate and adult courses in accounting and capital investment. Formulated an action program for Caribbean firms engaged in trade and tourism to protect profits from currency movements. Conducted seminars for trading companies and investment-promotion agencies.

Corporate Finance Manager, Capital Investment & Financing of Overseas Expansion
Digital Equipment Corporation. Maynard, MA. 1981-1992.
www.hp.com
A $14-billion computer manufacturer operating in 70 countries (1992). Since acquired by Hewlett-Packard.

• Financed the company�s entry into 20 developing-country markets. Improved corporate liquidity by arranging repatriation of cash from subsidiaries operating under restrictive tax and foreign-exchange regimes.
• Integrated a financial-services software business acquired from Royal Philips Electronics (Holland) into Digital Equipment subsidiaries in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. Conducted strategic review of Philippines business, then structured and negotiated sale to the local management. Through speed and quality of work, averted loss of personnel, customer disruption, and compliance problems.
• Dampened earnings volatility by hedging currency risk on $3 billion of net cash flows in 23 currencies.
• Formed innovative alliances between Digital Equipment and nonprofit professional societies to advance Digital�s marketing aims. In exchange, the societies�active in public accountancy, manufacturing, and robotics�gained access to advanced technology and product expertise.

Municipal Manager & Chief Financial Officer
Borough of Green Tree, PA. 1977-1979.
www.greentreeboro.com

Growing municipality with major commercial-office complex bordering Pittsburgh. Managed staff of 25.

Established the first long-term capital development plan. Negotiated an A-1 Moody�s rating on new bond issue. Geared spending priorities toward social services: Opened a senior center, expanded library, upgraded pool, and opened new recreation fields.

Director of Planning & Development
City of Bradford, PA. 1975-1976.
www.bradfordpa.com
A municipality of 12,000 residents and 200 city employees (1975).

Coordinated property-code enforcement with HUD Section 8 housing and neighborhood revitalization programs. Teamed with Legal Services Corporation to give tenants better bargaining power with irresponsible landlords. Instituted a rent-withholding program, sanctioned by state law.

EDUCATION
M.B.A. Harvard Business School, 1981, finance.
M.A. Pennsylvania State University, 1975, political science.
B.A. Dartmouth College, 1972, government.

Sphere: Related Content