WASHINGTON – The U.S. Government hosted the first meeting of the Blue Dot Network Steering Committee. The meeting was led by U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the U.S. Department of State and was attended by Steering Committee representatives from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Officials from other countries observed the meeting to learn more about Blue Dot Network, provide input and feedback to the Steering Committee, and discuss potential opportunities to join the initiative.
Meeting discussions focused on further developing the Blue Dot Network vision as well as membership criteria and responsibilities. Work to finalize benchmarks against which projects will be certified will continue over the coming months.
Blue Dot Network is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together governments, the private sector, and civil society to promote high-quality, trusted standards for global infrastructure development in an open and inclusive framework. The initiative will evaluate and certify infrastructure projects based upon adherence to internationally accepted principles and standards to promote market-driven, transparent, and financially sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world. Blue Dot Network was announced in November 2019 at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Blue Dot Network Steering Committee has been convened to establish the initiative, as well as invite partners representing sovereign governments, economies, the private sector, and civil society to join the effort. U.S. Government coordination of Blue Dot Network is led by DFC in close coordination with other agencies including the U.S. Department of State.
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U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is America’s development bank. DFC partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. We invest across sectors including energy, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and technology. DFC also provides financing for small businesses and women entrepreneurs in order to create jobs in emerging markets. DFC investments adhere to high standards and respect the environment, human rights, and worker rights.
Board of Directors
Chief Executive Officer
Adam Boehler serves as the first Chief Executive Officer of the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). He was appointed by the President and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 26, 2019.
Mr. Boehler has extensive experience in investment, entrepreneurship, and innovation both in and outside of the U.S. Government. Prior to his confirmation, he led healthcare innovation for the United States. He served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Director of the Innovation Center at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In this role, Mr. Boehler oversaw 600 people focused on innovation in the American healthcare system to create better outcomes for patients, healthier communities, and lower the cost of healthcare.
Prior to his government service, Mr. Boehler founded three successful businesses and was widely regarded as a leader in the healthcare and private investment sectors. Most recently, he served as CEO of Landmark Health, a company he founded that delivers round-the-clock medical care to chronically ill patients in their homes. During Mr. Boehler’s tenure, Landmark grew to be the largest home-based medical group in the country, with over 1,000 employees serving 80,000 patients. This first half of Mr. Boehler’s career focused on domestic and international investing in the United States and Israel. Mr. Boehler also worked for the Financial and Fiscal Commission in South Africa where he focused on advocating for fiscal responsibility in the provinces.
Mr. Boehler was born and raised outside of Albany, New York and earned his degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is married and has four young children.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
TRC Companies, Inc.
Christopher P. Vincze has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TRC Companies, Inc., since January 2006. Prior to that, Mr. Vincze was the company’s Chief Operating Officer since May 2005. Mr. Vincze is responsible for oversight of the strategic direction of the Company and leads the firm’s Executive Management Team to execute the Company’s vision in the continuous effort to deliver value to its customers, and employees. Over the past 14 years, Mr. Vincze and the firm’s Executive Management Team have restructured and repositioned TRC as a leading provider of engineering, consulting, and construction management services to the Power, Environmental, Oil & Gas, and Infrastructure markets.
Prior to joining TRC, Mr. Vincze served as Managing Director at Marsh, Inc., the $5.5 billion risk and insurance services units of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE:MMC). While at Marsh, he led the firm’s Corporate Environmental Practice and worked closely with other Marsh National Practices, including Construction, Transportation, and Real Estate. In addition, Mr. Vincze participated in many MMC Capital and Corporate integration and growth programs. Before joining Marsh, he was President and COO at ATC Group Services, Inc., a $155 million, 1,700 employee engineering and environmental consulting company based in Woburn, Massachusetts. Additionally, Mr. Vincze has served on a number of Boards and participated in policy activities related to infrastructure, energy and environmental issues.
Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Department of Commerce
Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence as 39th Secretary of Commerce on February 28, 2017. Secretary Ross will be the principal voice of business in the Trump Administration, ensuring U.S. entrepreneurs and businesses have the tools they need to create jobs and economic opportunity.
Secretary Ross is the former Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of WL Ross & Co. LLC and has over 55 years of investment banking and private equity experience. Mr. Ross has restructured over $400 billion of assets in the airline, apparel, auto parts, banking, beverage, chemical, credit card, electric utility, food service, furniture, gypsum, home-building, insurance, marine transport, mortgage origination and servicing, oil and gas, rail car manufacturing and leasing, real estate, restaurants, shipyards, steel, textiles, and trucking industries. He has been chairman or lead director of more than 100 companies operating in more than 20 different countries.
Named by Bloomberg Markets as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance, Mr. Ross is the only person elected to both the Private Equity Hall of Fame and the Turnaround Management Hall of Fame. He previously served as privatization advisor to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund. President Kim Dae-jung awarded Mr. Ross a medal for helping South Korea during its financial crisis and, in November 2014, the Emperor of Japan awarded him The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star.
As a philanthropist, Secretary Ross recently served as Chairman of the Japan Society, Trustee of the Brookings Institution and Chairman of its Economic Studies Council, the International Board of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Blenheim Foundation, the Magritte Museum in Brussels, and the Palm Beach Civic Association. He was also an Advisory Board Member of Yale University School of Management. Secretary Ross is a graduate of Yale University and of Harvard Business School (with distinction). He and his wife Hilary Geary Ross have four children, Jessica Ross, Amanda Ross, Ted Geary, and Jack Geary.
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Michael R. Pompeo was sworn in as Secretary of State on April 26, 2018. He previously served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 to April 2018.
Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Mr. Pompeo was serving in his fourth term as congressman from Kansas’ 4th District. He served on the House Intelligence Committee, as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee and House Select Benghazi Committee.
Prior to his service in Congress, Mr. Pompeo founded Thayer Aerospace, where he served as CEO for more than a decade. He later became President of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturing, distribution, and service company.
Mr. Pompeo graduated first in his class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986 and served as a cavalry officer patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also served with the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry in the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division.
After leaving active duty, Mr. Pompeo graduated from Harvard Law School, having been an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Administrator
U.S. Agency for International Development
Ambassador Mark Green (ret.) was sworn in as the 18th Administrator in August 2017. Prior to joining USAID, he served as president of the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing democracy and human liberty around the world. He has also served as president and chief executive officer of the Initiative for Global Development, a nonprofit organization that engages corporate leaders to reduce poverty through business growth and investment in Africa and senior director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a network of 400 businesses, nongovernmental organizations, policy experts and other leaders supporting development tools in American foreign policy.
A recognized leader in the foreign policy and business communities, Green served as the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania from mid-2007 to early 2009. While there, he led a mission of more than 350 Americans and Tanzanians and was ultimately responsible for some of the world’s largest U.S.-led development programs.
Prior to serving as U.S. Ambassador, Green served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Wisconsin’s 8th District. While in Congress, he helped craft key policy initiatives including the Millennium Challenge Act and President George W. Bush’s history-making AIDS program. He also served as an Assistant Majority Whip.
Green has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, having been appointed to that post by President Barack Obama in 2010. He has also served on the Human Freedom Advisory Council for the Bush Institute and the Board of the Consensus for Development Reform, a coalition of policy and business leaders devising new principles for making development policy more effective and growth-oriented.
Green holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies. In 2014, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania presented him with a special Presidential Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation.
Under Secretary for International Affairs
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Brent McIntosh serves as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, where he provides leadership in strengthening the environment for U.S. economic growth, advancing American interests in the international financial system, protecting financial stability, and managing key global challenges. As Under Secretary, Mr. McIntosh works to strengthen U.S. relationships with foreign partners and represents the United States in various international bodies. Prior to his confirmation as Under Secretary, he served as the Department’s General Counsel, providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary and other senior Departmental officials.
Prior to his Treasury service, Mr. McIntosh was a partner in the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he was a member of the firm’s litigation and financial services practice groups and co-led the firm’s cybersecurity practice. Mr. McIntosh served in the White House from 2006 until 2009, first as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary. From 2004 until 2006, he served in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, including as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. At both the White House Counsel’s Office and the Justice Department, Mr. McIntosh’s work focused on national security and intelligence matters, as well as the judicial selection process.
Mr. McIntosh was born and raised in Michigan. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from Yale Law School. Following law school, he was a law clerk to Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Senior Advisor
Chrysalis Ventures
After a 35 year career in the financial services industry, Irving W. Bailey II joined Chrysalis Ventures as a Managing Director in 2001, where he now serves as Senior Advisor. He was formerly Chairman and CEO of Providian Corporation, an insurance and diversified financial services company. During the time he was CEO, he also served as Chairman of the American Council of Life Insurance. Earlier in his career, he managed the investment portfolio of several insurance companies. After Providian’s sale to Aegon, NV, he went on to become Vice Chairman of Aegon as well as Chairman of its Risk Committee. He is also a former director of a number of private and public companies, including Hospira, Inc and Computer Sciences Corporation.
Mr. Bailey is a Trustee of Save the Children as well as a Director and co-founder of Operation Open Arms, which places children of incarcerated mothers with caring foster families in the Louisville, KY area.
Mr. Bailey is a graduate of the University of Colorado, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his MBA with distinction from the Stern Business School at New York University.