Global Vision

:: Economist gives to library

:: Impressed by impact of private giving

:: Developing local solutions

:: Read entire story

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At a time when many of his peers are slowing down, economist Donald Mickelwait ’56, M.A. ’60, still revels in a career that keeps him hopping between Baghdad, Beijing, and Bangkok. He credits his favorite college haunt—the University of Oregon’s main library—with launching him on the path to success.

“I was a very active library user in college and a serious college debater,” said the chairman and chief executive officer of Experience International, Inc., during a recent tour of the Knight Library. “Debate requires evidence, research, and a library, which I used a great deal.”

Mickelwait, whose Thailand-based consulting firm plans and develops rural recovery projects for nations reeling from natural disasters or wars, says the research skills he developed as a student are essential in his profession. Whether the challenge is reviving Iraq’s wheat industry or stanching the desertification of western China, recovery plans begin by reconstructing how a region’s resources and infrastructure looked before the damage occurred.

Impressed by the impact of private giving on UO athletic facilities, Mickelwait decided last spring that he would “help balance things out” by naming the University of Oregon Libraries as the beneficiary
of a charitable remainder unitrust which he funded with $1 million in appreciated company stock. The company and its stock were subject to a buyout offer. “I saw the opportunity to shift Uncle Sam’s cut of the stock sale to the library and I took it,” he said.

Deborah Carver, Philip H. Knight Dean of Libraries, said the endowment resulting from Mickelwait’s foresight will strengthen the state’s largest research library’s programs and initiatives at many different levels well into the future.

“This generous gift demonstrates clearly how his life’s work is geared toward helping people and institutions build sustainable foundations on which to grow,” Carver said.

A graduate of the UO’s Air Force ROTC program, Mickelwait sandwiched serving as an intelligence officer in Okinawa and the Philippines between completion of his bachelor’s in economics and his master’s in economic development. He went on to work for the Agency for International Development (AID) in Thailand, earn a master’s in
public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and launch himself as an international consultant.

In 1970, Mickelwait cofounded and served as chief executive officer of Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), a consulting firm that grew from three to 500 employees and achieved $200 million in gross revenue by the time he left the company in 2000.

He says competing on a UO debate team that made nationals helped equip him for the challenges of gaining support for economic recovery initiatives. Impoverished rural residents must be convinced to adopt new production methods. At the same time, funding agencies and donors must be persuaded to buy in.

“We try to take a problem and develop local solutions,” he said. “There’s lots of money. It’s convincing the people who have it to let go of it.”
For details about Mickelwait’s work, visit www.experience-inc.com.

–Melody Ward Leslie