Jack Downey

Jack Downey has extensive experience in strategic planning, development and management of large, complex development programs in the United States and in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President for Business Development at Abt Associates where he oversaw market-level business development in collaboration with Abt’s business divisions and subsidiaries and helped build new service lines to support continued diversification of client funding.  Previously, he served as the Head of Relation Building at the International AIDS Society in Geneva, Switzerland where he was responsible for partnerships, donor relations, fundraising, and long-range strategic fundraising for IAS’ global policy and advocacy agenda.  As Chief Operating Officer of AED, a large US and international NGO for 11 years, he worked extensively on program management of education, health, civil society, and economic and human capacity development programs. Previously, he headed strategic planning and new business development for 12 years.  Prior to joining AED, Mr. Downey worked for the USAID in Kenya and the Sudan and for Volunteers in Technical Assistance on community-based rural enterprises.  Mr. Downey started his career in international development as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, where he served as headmaster of a secondary school offering vocational training.  He has since worked in more than 40+ countries.  Active in the Society for International Development (SID) for the past 20 years, he has served on the SID advisory council in Rome, Italy, as president of the SID-Washington Chapter (now SID-United States) and was formerly a member of the SID-US board.