A Message from the CEO

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Happy Birthday, DAI!

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Today is DAI’s 50th birthday. Only a third of businesses survive past their 10th year and only one in 10 make it to the age of 25. The average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 index of leading U.S. companies has decreased by more than 50 years in the past century, from 67 years in the 1920s to just 15 years today. DAI is in rarified air.

Needless to say, we never expected to be marking DAI’s 50th anniversary in the throes of a pandemic. COVID-19 has certainly caused us to rethink how we’ll be celebrating—if celebrate is even the right word to use in the midst of such adversity.

We won’t be having the party we had planned for Bethesda. We won’t be hosting an event in Brussels. We won’t be spending the money we had set aside for our milestone—partly because we need to husband our resources, mostly because it just isn’t right to be focusing on ourselves at what is such a trying time for so many people.

So we are setting our plans aside, at least for the time being.

But even as COVID-19 tempers our expectations for the anniversary year, I think there’s a way of framing this disruption that reminds us what it is we are (quietly) proud of on this, our 50th birthday.

Because in fact it’s quite apt that we are turning to something bigger than ourselves. In many ways, we were born and built to tackle big problems. And we’ve been doing it—as have our predecessor companies—for decades.

After the fall of the Berlin wall, we played our part in putting the Cold War behind us. When the west set out to embrace eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, DAI was called on to deliver economic development, governance, and environmental programming. We’re there to this day.

After 9/11, we answered the call to rebuild Afghanistan’s rural economies, reintegrate women into the fabric of society, breathe life into agricultural finance and small businesses, and afford local governments the legitimacy, authority, and capability they need to compete against extremist elements—a record no other company can match.

After the Indonesian tsunami, which killed 225,000 people, we were there—in Aceh in particular, but also in Sri Lanka. And for our efforts to support the recovery effort, we were recognized in the U.S. Congress.

After the Haiti earthquake, which killed hundreds of thousands of people, we stepped up. I remember listening to our team leader narrating the sights and sounds of the disaster live on CNN, and DAI mobilizing within days to support the rubble-clearing, cash-for-work, and other programs that would begin the transition from crisis to stability.

And of course we were there for all the other pandemics or potential pandemics that have emerged over the past 20 years. From H5N1 to swine flu and Ebola. Beginning with a small practice in the obscure field of avian influenza—and folding in our expertise in agriculture, crisis mitigation, community engagement, governance, and institutional capacity building—we have made ourselves a pre-eminent exponent of pandemic preparedness and response.

Over the coming months, we’ll need all that expertise and all the experience we gained on the series of projects starting with Community-Based Avian Influenza Control, then STOP AI (Stamping Out Pandemic and Avian Influenza), RESPOND, Strategies Against Flu Emergence, and the Preparedness & Response project. We’ll need to leverage all we’re doing with the British government on the Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Program and the various Fleming Fund initiatives on antimicrobial resistance.

Frankly, it’s our privilege to work on these momentous projects. Like almost all companies and organizations, we are to a great extent swept along by the forces of history—disease, calamity, economics. But unlike most of those companies, we get to play a role, albeit a modest one, in shaping the forces around us.

One of the things I have most appreciated about working at DAI for 35 of its 50 years is that when I read the papers in the morning, and I see what’s going on in the world, I feel like I’m part of that international conversation. I know that DAI could be called on to join the discussion and lend a hand, and I’m proud to say that very often we are.

So there’s much for us to be proud of on this big day. But let’s also be humble. Let’s remember that in our development projects we work on behalf of others: our customers and the stakeholders of the programs we help carry out. Let’s remember also the people who are, for the most part, our ultimate patrons: the taxpayers who fund these development donors and expect our best performance day in and day out.

And let’s remember that like everyone else in the development enterprise, we are team players. We achieve what we do by working alongside not only our customers but our partners, local and national: our friends in governments, civil society organizations, and associations around the world, our counterparts in the academic and think tank community, our subcontractors and consultants, and yes our competitors. Collectively, we have made a huge difference over the past 50 years. Our success would not be possible without them.

Finally, let’s also remember that the bulk of our work is not pivoting to address any single calamity or epochal moment, but staying true to the multifaceted, interdisciplinary, steady-state work of development—the kind of work that will ultimately enable developing countries to better cope with any adversity.

It is a truism of international development that natural disasters will inevitably take a greater toll on those countries or segments of society least equipped to deal with them. DAI’s bread and butter is our relentless quest to tackle the underlying constraints to development that make those countries more vulnerable in the first place: the deep-seated failures in markets, governance, and stability that prevent developing nations and under-resourced communities from realizing their potential.

That’s what Don Mickelwait, Charlie Sweet, and John Buck had in mind when they put pen to paper and incorporated DAI 50 years ago. It remains top of mind today.

Some of us, I know, are watching the 10-part ESPN series about Michael Jordan titled “The Last Dance,” the story of how the Chicago Bulls tackled the unthinkable challenge of trying to win a sixth NBA championship over an 8-year period in 1998. The story is rich with insights and highly entertaining, but you can’t help but be awestruck at the relentless desire of the Bulls to keep getting stronger and better. We see a team that celebrates its success, but refuses to rest on its laurels. A team with a passion for excellence, an unwavering desire to be the best, and an enviable capacity to reenergize, refocus, and win.

I am proud to say that DAI has shown the same passion during its first 50 years and we shall commit to keeping it going for at least 50 more. Happy Birthday, DAI!