DAI is pleased to announce that Michael F. Walsh, the former Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO) at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and most recently director of programs for InsideNGO, has been named managing director for the Center for Development Excellence (CDE).

The CDE builds the capacity of practitioners and organizations worldwide to track, bid on, win, implement, and responsibly account for development contracts and grants. As Managing Director, Mr. Walsh is charged with expanding and improving the  products and services of the CDE, which DAI founded in January 2010.

“We are thrilled to have a development professional of Mike’s caliber to lead this important initiative,” said James Boomgard, DAI’s President and CEO. “Local practitioners are increasingly the driving forces behind local development success. With his stellar track record in the United States and abroad, Mike is the perfect person to help CDE respond to the needs of local practitioners in the development marketplace.”

Over his nearly 30-year career, including tenures as USAID’s contracting officer in Bangladesh, Egypt, and East Africa, Mr. Walsh has managed some of the most successful and innovative projects in the USAID portfolio. As USAID’s CAO and procurement executive from 2004 to 2007, he directed a staff of 125 professionals in Washington as well as more than 250 overseas. He was responsible for approximately $8 billion in contracts and grants per year, and resolved contracting issues in Iraq and Afghanistan and at more than 75 other overseas missions.

From 2007 to 2010, as director of programs for finance, grants, and contracts at Inside NGO, Mr. Walsh directed training, advocacy, and services for member chief financial officers and grant/contract managers, working with more than 260 nongovernmental organizations in international development and humanitarian relief.

“I couldn’t be happier to take on this truly vital mission for the CDE, one that I believe will ultimately strengthen hundreds of development programs in the field and thus improve countless lives,” Mr. Walsh said. “I look forward to the challenges ahead and achieving authentic capacity building with our client organizations.”

In April the CDE acquired the training assets of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Management, a leading provider of U.S. Government contract compliance and financial management training. In so doing, CDE obtained a suite of materials that provide seminar participants the tools necessary to meet the procedural and contractual requirements of U.S. Government clients, principally USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDE also acquired three master’s certificate programs, and financial software and softcopy templates created expressly for managing USAID awards.

Mr. Walsh's background and understanding of donor agencies gives him keen insight into the emerging strategies of USAID and other donor agencies. This perspective will enhance the CDE’s ability to serve local organizations, governments, and international donors that seek the training, systems, and advisory services required for building effective and compliant organizations.

To date, the CDE has conducted seminars for local practitioners in Islamabad, Pakistan, and has upcoming seminars scheduled in Lusaka, Zambia; Nairobi, Kenya; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Kampala, Uganda; Pretoria, South Africa; Manila, Philippines; New Delhi, India; Abuja, Nigeria; and Washington, D.C.