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International Executive Service Corps is an international economic development not-for-profit organization. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. IESC was founded in 1964 by David Rockefeller, States M. Mead III, Frank Pace, Sol Linowitz, and other prominent American business leaders. IESC has worked in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Eurasia, Asia and the Near East, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Geekcorps is a division of IESC. IESC's mission is to improve the lives of people throughout the world by strengthening private enterprise. IESC has implemented complex development programs across every economic sector (public and private), helped businesses create or save over 1.5 million jobs, delivered more than $500 million in donated services from its volunteer experts, and facilitated more than $3 billion in U.S. goods and services by overseas clients. IESC's original service model was based on short term projects implemented by volunteer experts. It has evolved into a service delivery model centered around long term field staff who are supplemented by short term consultants and volunteer experts. This is especially true of IESC's work in Afghanistan, where service commitments are often multi-year and the immediate demand for executive leadership is robust. Changes in IESC's service model have not changed the volunteer core of IESC, and IESC maintains a database of thousands of volunteer experts.

History


IESC's first board meeting took place on June 15, 1964 in Washington. The board included leaders from American business enterprises and included David Rockefeller; president of Chase Manhattan Bank; Ray R. Eppert: president of Burroughs Corporation; C.D. Jackson, senior vice president of Time, Inc.; John H. Johnson, president of Johnson Publishing; Dan A. Kimball, chairman of Aerojet; Sol M. Linowitz, chairman of Xerox Corporation; and William S. Paley, chairman of CBS. C.D. Jackson died in the opening days of his chairmanship of IESC and was replaced by Frank Pace. By 1965, IESC was already operating in Thailand, where Raytheon executive Ray Ellis was assigned as management advisor to T.S. Lin, President of Tatung Engineering Company. When IESC celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1984, the organization was working in 74 developing countries. President Ronald Reagan said, "IESC exemplifies my belief in the wisdom of the private sector to meet challenges in the national and international arena effectively. Private sector initiatives such as these lend a helping hand that is deeply appreciated by both the industries and governments in these less developed nations. Once again, I thank you for sharing your talent and providing help and hope to others and wish you continued success in this most worthy program." Since then the total number of IESC project countries has doubled to more than 130 countries.

Practice areas
IESC offers services in the areas of trade and competitiveness, financial services, tourism development, information and communications technology, capacity building, and health and business training services. These services, delivered alone or in combination with each other, constitute IESC's integrated approach to sustainable development. Throughout its 50 year history, IESC has developed expertise in; technical, managerial and professional assistance consulting; micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise support; market development; institution strengthening; quality enhancement; grants management; health and human resources; public administration and policy; and conflict and post-conflict management. It often carries those activities out through training programs, workshops and seminars.

Recent projects
In 2010, Ambassador Thomas J. Miller took over as CEO for IESC. Under Miller's leadership, IESC's budget has grown from an initial $5 million in 2010 to $30 million in 2013. In 2011, IESC began a project to train 126 South Sudanese diplomatic officials and fully integrate South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the world of global diplomacy. In 2012, IESC won a $105 million award (its largest ever) to support certain key sectors of the economy in Afghanistan, the organization's largest-ever award. The project is a collaboration between IESC and the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) and is called the Assistance in Building Afghanistan by Developing Enterprises (ABADE) Program. ABADE aims to enable Afghan entrepreneurs to grow successful businesses by providing technical assistance, business consulting, and facilitating public-private partnerships. In Lebanon, IESC also administers the USAID-funded Lebanon Investment in Microfinance Program (LIM) program to help small business owners apply for micro-loans to expand their businesses. In Ethiopia, IESC's support helped to increase exports from $3 million in 2005 to $10.3 million in 2010. In Tunisia, IESC administers a project that helps local entrepreneurs tap international trade opportunities through an online platform. In Mali, IESC's Geekcorps built or refurbished 17 radio stations on the edges of the Saharan desert, contributing directly to US counter-terrorism objectives by ensuring that local communities have an independent source of information beyond local tribal leaders and nearby terrorist cells. In Morocco, IESC has implemented the Morocco Commercial Development Organization Support Program which seeks to assist commercial development organizations by facilitating access to capital and export markets. In 2013, IESC began a project with the AARP and the Chinese government to deploy senior business executive leaders as volunteer experts to China. IESC celebrated its 50th anniversary at a reception in May 2014 at Meridian House in Washington DC.