Russell J Dionne - International Executive, Management, and Consulting Services

CURRICULUM VITAE

RUSSELL J. DIONNE
705 Julia Street
New Iberia, Louisiana 70560
U.S.A.
Voice USA: + 1 337 369 9915
Mobile phone: +1 337 255 3686

Qualification Summary:
International management and management consulting
General and operations Management
E-commerce start-up and operations
Economic analysis
IT and MIS experience
International logistics planning and implementation
Local government and democracy
Multidisciplinary technical experience
National scale program design and implementation
Operations research
Policy development
Program design
Project design and implementation
Public health, population, family planning
Rapid assessment of technical needs and key cultural considerations
Social marketing
Strategic and tactical planning
Systems analysis
Technology transfer
Training
Turnaround of troubled projects and programs

Citizenship: USA

Country Experience:
Armenia, Bahrain, Denmark, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.

Languages:
English (native), French (fluent), Hindi (fair), Japanese (fair), Urdu (basic), Nepali (basic), Arabic (basic).

Education:
PhD Duke University, USA, History of Science, 1973
MA University of Southwestern Louisiana, USA, Economic History, 1967
BA Tulane University, USA, English Literature, 1963

Experience Record: Jan 2002-Present Independent Consultant Bangkok, Thailand
My primary client is an art brokerage firm in Los Angeles, California. I am a business development and management consultant for the brokerage, and for the first five months of 2007 I worked as the firm’s operations manager implementing a reorganization plan. I undertake production management for the brokerage. In 2002 I established the Kathmandu Art Foundry in Nepal for the production of bronze sculpture offerings under contract with the brokerage. I contracted with art metal foundries in Thailand for the production of sculpture offerings, and explored jewelry design and production possibilities in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

In addition to the technical and management work, my work required the mastery of import and export realities in these South and Southeast Asian countries, import - export finance, business registration, and government policies and laws.

Additional clients include 1) a magazine publisher and entrepreneur in Kathmandu, Nepal for whom I advise in many areas and serve on his board of directors; 2) a Thai businessman and entrepreneur in Bangkok for whom I advised on the implementation of a hydro electric power generation project in Laos and the establishment of an energy investment bank; 3) the SD Research Center in New York, New York, in which I serve on the Board of Directors and consult on systems development.

Aug 2000-Dec 2001 PADCO, Inc. Washington, D.C. Position: Senior MIS-IT Advisor Location: Armenia
I was hired by PADCO to serve as Senior Resident MIS-IT Advisor to the USAID-funded Armenia Social Transition Project. The objective of the project was to assist Armenia in its transition from Soviet style health, administrative, and financial systems to systems appropriate to Armenia’s changed circumstances. My general job functions were to develop, monitor, and update strategies for the development of management information systems for the Government of Armenia, Marzes, and local administrative offices to deliver health care, social assistance, and social insurance services. My specific job functions include the implementation of a Personal Identification Number system for the population of Armenia, the development of a Personified Records Keeping System for use by all government agencies responsible for pensions, social insurance, health insurance, family benefits, and other social assistance programs, to introduce computer-based cost accounting and inventory control systems for Armenia’s health programs, to design and implement electronic data transfer systems between all levels of public health and social service delivery offices in Armenia, and to assess and design upgrades for Government of Armenia computer systems within the Ministry of Health, State Health Agency (health finance), Ministry of Social Security, Social Insurance Fund (pensions), Ministry of Justice (civil registry), and National Statistics Service.

In addition to the IT aspects of the project’s work, I also participated in the drafting of legislation and normative acts on data privacy and data sharing protocols.

Aug 1999 - Aug 2000 Mediafloor, Inc. Los Angeles, California Position: Acting General Manager Location: U.S.A.
Mediafloor was a business-to-business internet start-up company serving production managers and service and product vendors in the media industry. Beginning in early 1999, I served as a consultant to this company, assisting the founders in preparing business plans and venture capital proposals. With the successful raising of $12.5 million in initial venture capital funding in November, 1999, I was asked to act as general manager during the start-up phase of the enterprise. My duties included all general management and administration, office management, and human resource aspects of the start-up, as well as various additional tasks that were necessary in the building of a company in the fast-paced internet commerce space.

I examined dozens of incubator facilities. The building in which Mediafloor was started had recently been acquired as an expansion site by an incubator facility company. I played a significant role in designing the wiring and layout of the property before its renovation and Mediafloor’s occupancy.

I participated with the founders in preparing and revising venture capital presentations to fifteen firms. In the end, the start-up was funded by three firms, two from Silicon Valley and one from San Diego. I met regularly with the venture firm managers on administrative and senior recruitment matters, and prepared the initial meetings of the board of directors. I also met regularly with our venture capital bank officers.

June 1997-July 1999 Independent Consultant U.S.A
My principal clients during this period included: 1) a public health management and consulting firm in San Luis Obispo, California, for which I served as a business development consultant and proposal writer in its international public health consulting services; 2) a Hartford, Connecticut movie poster production company and archive for which I upgraded its management, financial, production, and inventory systems. I worked on computer-generated marketing tools and catalogs, and productivity enhancement. I also served as a consultant in the design and implementation of its business web site; 3) a Los Angeles, California art gallery for which I provided technical and strategic assistance in developing art businesses on the internet. I was asked to assist in the selection of the most appropriate art auction software, to advise in the design of the website, and in identifying the best firm to integrate the auction software with the website. In doing this, my time was divided equally between the art gallery, the software development firm, and the software integration firm.

1997 IRIS (Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector) University of Maryland College Park, Maryland Position: Consultant Location: Nepal
I was hired by IRIS to participate in the design of USAID / Nepal’s new women’s economic and social empowerment program. I was selected for this strategic and program design activity because of my prior successful work in the LOGOS Project (see entry below) toward the empowerment of village women in Nepal (April, May).

My work with village women, recognized by IRIS and USAID/Nepal in my being hired for program design, included the formulation of women’s groups for income generation purposes, providing seed funds, management advice, training in democratic decision-making and in the technical skills necessary to conduct the projects they selected. In addition, I encouraged and assisted in the formation of village and district level associations of women’s groups and provided them with training in accessing what government line ministry support was available to them (e.g., agricultural, veterinary, and forest development services) and participating in the village and district level political processes. By the end of the project, fifty women’s groups and three women’s group associations were functioning in pilot villages and districts. These groups functioned in areas of Nepal in which there were no roads, telephones, or electricity.

1994-1996 MetaMetrics, Inc. Washington, D.C., Clark Atlanta University Atlanta, Georgia Position: Project Director Location: Nepal
The Local Government Strengthening (LOGOS) Project that I managed as Chief of Party was the Local Government Strengthening component of the USAID-funded Nepal Democratic Institutions Strengthening Program. My responsibilities included: project management; project technical direction (development of work plans, technical assistance, delivery strategies, local government training strategies, village group training strategies, local resource mobilization efforts, community self-help development activities, and rural development activities); supervision of subcontractor personnel assigned to field operations; and coordination for USAID/Nepal of information on and activities of other international donor agencies working toward the strengthening of multi-party democracy and the decentralization of local governments in Nepal. LOGOS Project transfer of technology combined various aspects of the disciplines of strategic planning, public policy and administration, decentralized legal and judicial systems, public finance and local resource mobilization, social science research, local government information systems, training methodologies, community mobilization, and an array of techniques for supporting the growth of political awareness, commitment to community self-help, and for the empowerment of women and disadvantaged groups.

I was the only expatriate on this $3 million project, and supervised an office staff of twenty people and an NGO subcontractor with forty field staff for activity implementation. As the sole expatriate, I was responsible for meeting all USAID process requirements and reporting mechanisms. My work plan was adopted as the model for all other USAID/Nepal democracy program grantees (Nepali NGOs), as were my methods of quantifying behavioral changes realized by program participants.

1990-1994 E. Petrich & Associates San Luis Obispo, California Position: Senior Associate Locations: Egypt, USA
My work was done within and for Egypt's National Population Council and Ministry of Health (Family Planning and Maternal-Child Care Sections) under the umbrella of the USAID-funded Egyptian Population Project II. I was responsible for the conceptualization, design, installation, testing, and refinement of computerized bilingual (Arabic-English) management information systems for health care delivery systems integrating four thousand service delivery units with the national centers. My work included: institutional analysis and design of information requirements to support new or improved managerial and program decision-making practices; the preparation of data and other information specifications and record design; the selection and design of computer hardware and software specifications; the selection and design of computer hardware and software configurations; the preparation of procurement documents; supervision of hardware and software installation and testing; development, conduct, and evaluation of training; and overall assessment of the quality of the health information system.

1987-1990 DAC International Washington, D.C. Position: Deputy Chief of Party Location: Cairo, Egypt
I was Deputy Chief of Party in the central ministry component of the USAID-funded Egyptian Local Development II Program. This was a US$100 million/year rural and urban water and waste water infrastructure development program. In addition to administering this ministerial-level (five Egyptian government ministries) project, my duties included the assessment of training needs for the management of Egypt's Local Development II (LD II) Program as well as the conceptualization and development of three Management Information Systems (MIS) for the LD II Program. My project had a budget of $4 million and had a staff of six expatriates, thirty-five Egyptians, and an Egyptian subcontractor organization with twenty employees working on NGO management and technical training.

1986-1987 RONCO Consulting Corporation Durham, North Carolina Position: Senior Information Location: Middle East/ Systems Consultant North Africa
In this USAID-funded project, I conducted Health Information Systems (HIS) needs assessments in cooperation with health ministries in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and (North) Yemen. I also conceptualized, designed, implemented, and evaluated micro-computer based HIS for the Ministries of Health. This was a USAID-funded PAC II Family Planning Training Project, a project responsible for training doctors, nurses, and paramedics in North Africa and the Middle East.

1984-1985 Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, Research Triangle Park, N. C. Position: Corporate Planner Location: USA
As a member of the Corporate Planning Division of the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC), I was responsible for the planning and coordination of research programs among the constituent parts of this applied research and manufacturing organization. My primary duties included the management of institutional liaison, the development of research programs, the development of institutional proposals, the negotiation of research contracts, the management of research programs, corporate planning and development, and industrial software business development and sales.

My experience with Research Triangle Part was in working in one organization, networking with counterparts in other organizations within the Park, and being aware of the state and national politics of support for the technology park and its various entities because of my responsibility for writing Congressional testimony for the president of MCNC.

MCNC clients were either members of the Semiconductor Manufacturers’ Association or the United States Government. I wrote or edited the research proposals and technical contents of research contracts. Because MCNC was owned jointly by three universities, each with their own intellectual property rules, and entered into research contracts with private businesses and government agencies that also had very specific rules for intellectual property ownership, I assisted in the resolution of the complex intellectual property issues before the research contracts were signed.

1983-1984 S.C.I. Development Corporation Chapel Hill, North Carolina Position: Corporate Secretary Location: USA
My position in this North Carolina biomedical engineering company grew out of consulting contracts to write research proposals, clarify research design and protocols, identify funding sources, write business plans, and secure research and development funds.

1979-1983 Self-Employed New York, New York Durham, North Carolina Position: Independent Consultant Location: USA
My consulting work focused upon research planning, research design, and development support for electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and medical research. This work also included solar energy applications research, small business development, agricultural modernization, institutional communications, and television series development.

1977-1979 National Science Foundation Washington, D.C. Position: Research Fellow Location: England
I was an NSF Research Fellow, concurrent with being a Visiting Research Fellow, School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex (Brighton, England), and Adjunct Professor of History, Duke University (Durham, North Carolina). My research, conducted in England, focused upon the international relations of science and technology.

1970-1977 Universities Positions: Faculty Member or Research Fellow at various universities in North America, South Asia, Europe, and Japan. Each assignment was a discrete one year activity.
During this period, I was also a research fellow for the National Endowment for the Humanities (1974-1976) in its program on The interrelationships between human values and science and technology. I was investigating topics in agricultural development in Pakistan, India, and Nepal, and was also affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley South Asia Program.

1967-1970 Duke University Durham, North Carolina Position: Graduate Student Locations: USA, India, UK
My studies in the history of science focused upon the issues involved in the transfer of technology in Asia. My doctoral research was on agricultural and rural development in South Asia.

1965-1967 University of Southwestern Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Position: Graduate Student Location: USA
My general studies were of world economic history. My master's research was on the European Economic Community.

1963-1965 United States Navy Position: Supply Officer Location: Persian Gulf/ Indian Ocean
I was the Supply Officer for the U.S. Navy's Middle East Force Flagship, and as such was responsible for all financial and supply activities, as well as accounting oversight, of U.S. Navy ships and shore facilities in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

1959-1963 Tulane University New Orleans, Louisiana Position: Undergraduate Student Location: USA
My initial training was in the Tulane University School of Architecture, but I received my bachelor's degree in English Literature.