ACDI/VOCA Executive Team & Board

 

Carl H. Leonard President and CEO   Mr. Leonard has 30 years of experience directing and managing economic assistance programs in Latin America and the Caribbean with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), serving as mission director in three countries and, prior to coming to ACDI/VOCA in 2001, acting assistant administrator. In this capacity he oversaw 16 USAID field missions and 3 regional programs. He achieved the rank of career minister in the Senior Foreign Service and received numerous awards from USAID, including two presidential-rank awards and the agency’s Distinguished Career Service Award. Until October 2004 he served as ACDI/VOCA's senior vice president for Global Programs and the Latin America Division. Mr. Leonard speaks Spanish and has an M.A. in Ibero-American studies from the University of Wisconsin and a B.A. in economics from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Leonard also completed a mid-career fellowship at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs.

Bill Polidoro Chief Operating Officer   Bill Polidoro oversees planning, developing and implementing ACDI/VOCA's worldwide portfolio of development activities. Mr. Polidoro joined the company in October 2005, as senior vice president for special projects and ascended to the role of COO in February 2006. Mr. Polidoro came to ACDI/VOCA from Pact, Inc., where he served as the director for the Africa region after working as the country director for Kenya and Sudan and as a senior program manager. Mr. Polidoro earned his doctorate in development anthropology at the American University, in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. in sociology from North Adams State College, in Massachusetts. He has also completed additional graduate work in anthropology and South Asian studies at the University of Chicago, in Illinois. He worked in Guinea for USAID as a personal services contractor, managing an integrated natural resource management (NRM) program. Subsequent assignments with Pact, Datex and Development Assistance Corporation included strengthening public administration, agricultural marketing, NRM and environment, livelihoods, and civil society development, including community responses to HIV/AIDS. Mr. Polidoro began his international career in the early 1980s in India working in agricultural development while conducting anthropological research. His area of specialization is the impact of policy on rural communities, especially as it relates to land tenure and livelihoods.

Matt Renaud Chief Financial Officer   Mr. Renaud oversees the operations of ACDI/VOCA's accounting and finance units. He first joined ACDI/VOCA in 2004 as a budget analyst and went on to manage budgeting, financial reporting and financial analysis as the finance and budgets manager. During this period he also spent time in Serbia as the interim finance manager on a USAID-funded program. He later served as controller and deputy chief financial officer. Before joining ACDI/VOCA, he worked in the private sector for accountant and consultant companies. Mr. Renaud also served in the Peace Corps as a small business consultant in Turkmenistan. He has earned a B.A. in business administration and accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. in international management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

William T. Irelan

General Counsel

 

Mr. Irelan has served as general counsel to ACDI/VOCA since 1991. Mr. Irelan's career includes many years of diverse professional experience in law and international development, having worked previously for the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, the international division of the Ford Foundation, Robert R. Nathan Associates, Chemonics and other consulting organizations, and, in private practice, as legal counsel to internationally oriented nonprofit organizations in New York and Washington, D.C. He has also worked or undertaken assignments for USAID and foreign governments, including the ministry of finance for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His professional expertise and activities have comprised general legal counseling, employment law and litigation, trade and export development, finance, and investment promotion. He has lived and/or worked in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, India and the Caribbean. He belongs to the bars of New York, the District of Columbia., Virginia and Ohio and has published articles on such topics as educational policy and human resource development in Jordan, law and economic development in Egypt, and the investment code in Tunisia. He earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia, his B.A. at Monmouth College in Illinois, and attended the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Mr. Irelan was a Ford Foundation Africa-Asia Fellow in Cairo, Egypt. He is proficient in French.

Marsha Moulton

Senior Vice President for Human Resources and Administration

 

Ms. Moulton heads the human resources and administrative divisions. As a certified senior professional in human resources, Ms. Moulton brings to ACDI/VOCA a depth of knowledge and experience in organizational management. She joined ACDI/VOCA in April 2006 after serving as vice president and deputy director of human resources at ICF International, Inc.; director of human resources and administration at Caliber Associates, Inc.; manager of human resources development at American Institutes for Research and senior personnel consultant at Tangent Corporation. She earned her M.S. in applied behavioral science with a concentration in organizational development at the Johns Hopkins University, and B.S. in psychology at the University of Maryland University College.

Mortimer Neufville, Chairman Washington, D.C.   Mr. Neufville has been chairman since June 2008. He retired that same month from his position as executive vice president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (now the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities). Before taking that position in 2000, he led NASULGC's federal relations activities and coordinated work related to agriculture, natural resources, environmental affairs, human sciences, forestry and international affairs. He is a former executive of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he was involved in various African development programs. He also served as chairman of the board of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, one of the Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. In Sept. 2008 he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame at the University of Oklahoma. Before becoming ACDI/VOCA chairman, he chaired the board’s Projects Committee and in that capacity led four trips overseas to review projects.

Deborah Atwood

Washington, D.C.

Deborah Atwood is director of Corporate Affairs and Public Policy at Mars, Inc. Previously she was a partner with C&M Capitolink, working with Congress, administration officials, and federal and state agencies on behalf of clients in the chemical, agricultural, environmental, mining and food industries. Ms. Atwood served as a partner at Capitolink from 1999 until 2001 when she took a leave of absence to serve in the Bush administration from August 2001 to September 2003 as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of Agriculture James Moseley. From 1995 until 1999 she was assistant vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs for the National Pork Producers Council, and from 1992 until 1995 vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs at the American Meat Institute. She served in President George H. Bush’s administration from 1989 to 1992 as deputy associate administrator for congressional and legislative affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency. She began her career on Capitol Hill on the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee staff from 1981 to 1983 working for Congressman Joel Pritchard. Later, Deborah joined the staff of Senator Slade Gorton, with responsibility for energy, water and fisheries policy. She is a marine resource scientist by training and has also worked at the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dr. U.S. Awasthi

New Delhi, India

Dr. Awasthi is the CEO and managing director of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) of New Delhi. He is an internationally renowned chemical engineer with over 34 years of experience dedicated to the fertilizer industry. Mr. Awasthi's deep-rooted concern for Indian agriculture is evident from some of the agriculture projects he has helped initiate in the areas of drip irrigation, bio-pesticides, bio-fertilizers, use of plastic in agriculture, agricultural mechanization and farm forestry. He has also worked to make farmers' education programs in his country more effective. Every year, a large number of farmers from all over India benefit from the agricultural extension activities of IFFCO. He is an enthusiastic and active cooperator and takes keen interest in the growth of cooperative movement in India.

Charles F. Conner

Washington, D.C.

Charles F. Conner is president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Prior to joining NCFC, between May 2005 and January 2009, Conner served as Deputy Secretary of USDA, where, as chief operating officer, he oversaw day-to-day operations including development of a $95 billion budget for the 26 USDA agencies representing 300 programs and more than 100,000 employees. Conner also represented USDA on the President’s Management Council providing food, trade, security and energy policy expertise. He led development of the 2008 $300 billion Farm Bill. While at USDA he led a delegation to Colombia and another to an FAO meeting in Rome, Italy, on global food and trade issues. Conner was special assistant to the president George W. Bush from October 2001 to May 2005. From May 1997 to October 2001 he headed the Corn Refiners Association, and in that capacity was involved in WTO and NAFTA issues. He is the recipient of Purdue’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Patricia Wilkinson Garamendi

Walnut Grove, California

Mrs. Garamendi is the California Exposition and State Fair assistant general manager. She has previously served as California’s assistant secretary of International Trade and Investment to the Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency and the deputy administrator for International Cooperation and Development for the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Garamendi has a wealth of experience managing national and international programs in agriculture and government, including five years as associate director of the Peace Corps. She and her husband John, current lieutenant governor of the state of California, served as Peace Corps volunteers in Ethiopia.

Douglas Graham

Columbus, Ohio

Mr. Graham is officer of sponsor relations for Nationwide. He manages relationships with agriculturally based customer groups that sponsor Nationwide, such as the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and CHS Cooperatives. He also administers programs for the Nationwide Board Council. Since joining Nationwide in 1981 as a communications manager, Mr. Graham has represented the company on boards and committees of several agricultural and cooperative associations. Among these are the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and the Cooperative Development Foundation. He is a former president of the Ohio Council of Cooperatives and the Cooperative Communicators Association. Mr. Graham serves as chairman of the Audit Committee.

William Harris

LeRoy, New York

Mr. Harris is the owner/operator of Harris Farms, a cash-crop farming operation, as well as partner of HR&W Harvesting, a processing vegetable farm. He has been farming since the mid-1970s and has long been a member of cooperatives including Birds Eye Foods, which was founded in the early sixties with Pro-Fac Cooperative, and Farm Credit banks. He currently serves on the board of directors of CoBank, a cooperative bank serving rural American enterprise. Mr. Harris is on the ACDI/VOCA board’s Projects Committee.

James K. Hoyt

Bloomington, Illinois

Jim Hoyt is vice president, strategic planning and corporate services, for GROWMARK Inc., where he directs the strategic planning process and oversees communications, marketing, HR, government affairs and flight operations. His GROWMARK career began in 1971. He has served on the board and executive committee of the Canadian Co-operative Association and its Cooperative Development Foundation, and is a recipient of the CCA’s Cooperative Spirit Award. Under CDF he volunteered to help form women’s credit unions in Uganda, and in four ACDI/VOCA volunteer stints he assisted agricultural businesses in Poland to restructure according to a cooperative model shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

R. Bruce Johnson

Richmond, Virginia

Mr. Johnson, a director of Southern States Cooperative, is general partner of Cohoke Farms, a 5,000-acre property in King William and King and Queen Counties in Virginia. His principal field crops are corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and canola. Mr. Johnson is a former president of King William Forestry Alliance and has been a member of the American Society of Agronomy for 22 years. He is also a past president of the Virginia Corn Growers Association and the Virginia Soybean Association. He also has served as director and member of numerous other community, business and farming associations, boards and committees. Mr. Johnson serves as chairman of the Projects Committee.

Richard Owen

Geraldine, Montana

Mr. Owen was elected to the CHS, Inc., board in 1999 and serves on the governance and government relations committees. He is past secretary and president of Equity Co-op Association of Geraldine, Mont., and past secretary of Central Montana Cooperative of Geraldine and Denton. He is currently chairman of the administrative council of his local church and is on the boards of the Montana Council of Cooperatives, Mountain View, LLC, and the Cooperative Development Center. He is a member of the Montana Farmers Union and Montana Grain Growers Association. Richard has a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Montana State University. He and his wife, Chris, farm east of Geraldine and have two sons attending college.

Honorable Timothy J. Penny, Vice Chairman

Waseca, Minnesota

Mr. Penny is a former congressman from Minnesota. Currently, he serves as the president of Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. Previously, he was senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He also served as senior consultant to the Minnesota-based public relations firm Himle Horner, Inc., and was national spokesman for the Healthcare Leadership Council. Penny is co-author of three books: Common Cents, Payment Due and The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics. He has been an ACDI/VOCA board member since 1995.

Don Theuninck

St. Paul, Minnesota

As AgriBank’s vice president for audit, Mr. Theuninck reports directly to AgriBank's audit committee and administratively to AgriBank's CEO. He provides leadership and oversight of the department's risk assessment process of AgriBank's operation and developing an audit plan for approval by the audit committee. He also assists the audit committee in fulfilling its responsibilities. Prior to the formation of AgriBank, Don was senior vice president of the producer credit group for the Farm Credit Bank of St. Paul. He started with the Farm Credit System in 1972 as a loan officer. He joined the Federal Land Bank of St. Paul in 1975 as a credit reviewer and held management positions responsible for strategic planning, bank operations, association supervision and various district-wide initiatives. In 1993 ACDI presented Theuninck with a special award for his volunteer service helping to reform the rural credit system in Russia. As an AgriBank officer he had led some of the first of hundreds of U.S. volunteers placed by ACDI and ACDI/VOCA under the Farmer-to-Farmer/NIS project, who have had an instrumental role in developing today's robust Russian rural credit system.

Tom Verdoorn

Arden Hills, Minnesota

Mr. Verdoorn is the vice president of the international and dairy proteins division at Land O’Lakes, Inc. Land O’Lakes International Development Division carries out humanitarian and economic development work in 28 nations. He is also responsible for Land O’Lakes investment in Advanced Food Products, LLC, the cooperative’s new joint venture with Bongrain in aseptic food processing.