Leadership and Board

Leadership Team

Deirdre White
President and CEO

Deirdre's 20+ year career in international development has included work with the public, private, nonprofit and government sectors. She joined CDS – then Citizens Democracy Corps – in 2002 as Vice President of Business and Program Development. In 2008, she was promoted to President and COO, taking on responsibility for the organization’s overall strategic direction and designing new development solutions based on industry needs and local realities.

Prior to joining the organization, Deirdre was a Senior Manager at Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL) and Director of CIS Operations for the Arthur D. Little School of Management. At ADL, she oversaw international development and educational initiatives funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Union’s Technical Assistance to the CIS (TACIS) office and others. She led numerous post-privatization restructuring programs in the light and heavy manufacturing industries, and was an organizational development consultant to several large companies in the Eurasian oil & gas sector.

Deirdre began her career in development at Welt International, a niche consulting firm that focused on countertrade and other non-traditional forms of financing trade ventures. She moved on to the not-for-profit sector as Deputy Director and then Director of Russian Operations for the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), where she oversaw more than one dozen exchange and professional training programs. Deirdre is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Levett
Senior Director and Vice Chair of the Board of Directors

Michael joined what was then Citizens Democracy Corps in 1994 as its President, and in the intervening years led the company’s expansion into over eighty countries on five continents.

Prior to joining CDS, he developed and managed trade, cultural, and commercial ventures in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Central Europe. He then returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as the founding president of Business for Social Responsibility, today’s leading business organization that develops and disseminates socially responsible corporate strategies to businesses of all sizes and industries and that links socially responsible practices and competitive companies. Michael was also Vice President at two international film companies, Lucasfilm, Ltd. and Dino DeLaurentis Corp. He was a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, a White House Fellow, and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University with a focus on environmental and regional planning issues.

He holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from UCLA. Mr. Levett is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), a member of the Executive Committee of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and is a non-resident Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

Amanda MacArthur
Vice President

Amanda MacArthur is a Vice President at CDC Development Solutions where she also leads the organization’s Global Citizenship and Volunteerism Practice Area, which includes the International Corporate Volunteer and MBA Programs divisions. In this role she has designed and managed employee engagement programs around the globe for IBM, Dow Corning, PepsiCo, FedEx, Deloitte and others. Prior to this Ms. MacArthur, managed headquarters operations for USAID-funded programs in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Central Asia, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Romania, and other donor-funded programs in Nigeria. Prior to joining CDS, she lived in Russia, Scotland and Paraguay. Ms. MacArthur is a magna cum laude graduate of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

Moussa Diouf
Vice President, Finance & Administration

Moussa Diouf is Vice President of Finance & Administration at CDC Development Solutions. As CFO, Mr. Diouf has responsibility for upholding strong financial management and accountability; providing timely, accurate and reliable financial information; and enhancing internal control. Before joining CDC Development Solutions, Mr. Diouf worked for Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, an international nonprofit organization and winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. There, Diouf held the position of Senior Accountant for four years before being promoted to Controller in 2004. Mr. Diouf holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting with a minor in Finance from The University of the District of Columbia. He is currently completing a master’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management at the Johns Hopkins University.

Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board

Lew W. Cramer
President and CEO, World Trade Center Utah 

Vice Chair of the Board

Michael A. Levett
Senior Director, CDC Development Solutions

William Delphos
Managing Director, Delphos International

James L. Hickman
Managing Partner, Mosaic Networks, LLC

Shari Hubert
Director of Recruitment, U.S. Peace Corps

James A. Jaffe
President and CEO, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds

Michael Kernan
Division Director, Macquarie Real Estate

Philip H. Mirvis
Senior Research Fellow, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Member, Trujillo Rodriquez & Richards, LLC

Tom Schneider
President & CEO, Restructuring Associates Inc.

Chairmen Emeritus

Drew Lewis
Chairman and CEO, Union Pacific

Dana G. Mead
Chairman of the Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

John Murphy
Dresser Industries

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