Paul Guenette, ACDI/VOCA Chief Communications Officer, is an economic development manager with expertise in agribusiness and trade. Mr. Guenette oversees a communications team and provides leadership in corporate planning and developing public-private partnerships with external corporations. He has designed and managed large, integrated, sustainable development programs in a career spanning 40 years and 71 countries, beginning with Peace Corps in Senegal in 1975, then stints working for DAI and Deloitte (now CARDNO), before arriving at ACDI/VOCA in 2006.
Guenette’s international development experience includes long-term assignments in Senegal, Mauritania, Indonesia, Barbados and Kenya heading programs that incorporated policy reform, business group strengthening, commercial marketing, food security, equity financing, and investment promotion. His consulting assignments include designing enterprise development programs for USAID, conducting international marketing workshops for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, analyzing agribusiness global trends for the World Bank, and designing a farmer organization program for IFAD. Guenette speaks fluent French. He earned his B.A. at Kalamazoo College and his M.B.A. at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.