Maryland Firms Lead Efforts to Develop Global Economy, DAI’s Tim Beans Tells Governor’s International Council

April 19, 2012

Maryland firms manage approximately $2.3 billion, or 10.4 percent, of the foreign assistance budget of the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—with DAI serving as the state’s leading development firm operating in 60 countries.

“DAI, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and other private sector firms together employ some 13,000 development professionals in Maryland and worldwide on behalf of the U.S. government and other donor agencies,” said DAI’s Tim Beans, who on April 18 spoke in Baltimore before the Governor’s International Advisory Council.

Beans, DAI’s senior vice president and senior advisor to the president and CEO, told the council of prominent Maryland business and public leaders that DAI and other global development firms are an important segment of the state’s economy in helping developing countries improve their economic standing and capacity to trade globally, benefiting the Port of Baltimore and Marylanders.

“In Vietnam, DAI has assisted the government in its stewardship of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies,” Beans said.

U.S. exports to Vietnam, for example, have increased from approximately $460 million in 2001 to more than $4.3 billion in 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. DAI began supporting Vietnam’s implementation of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2001 as well as the reforms needed for Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization, which the country achieved in 2007. Beans also spoke about DAI’s recently won work with WalMart on women’s enpowerment, the Urban Gardens program in Ethiopia as well as the company’s economic development efforts in the Palestinian Territories.

Beans also addressed a number of challenges facing the international development community, including decreasing budgets among the U.S. and other G8 nations, escalating compliance costs, and USAID’s procurement reforms. The presentation was the first time a Maryland-based global development firm has appeared before the council. The council provides strategic direction to the governor and the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development on ways to enhance Maryland’s global profile. Created in 2009, the board is comprised of 20 business and public executives from bioscience, manufacturing, finance, technology, education, agriculture, transportation, and nonprofit industries.

DAI in January was named a winner in the World Trade Center Institute’s 16th Annual Maryland International Business Leadership Award program. DAI was one of seven winners chosen from a pool of 80 independently nominated companies from the state. Winning companies were selected based on their success in international business, growth in revenue and employment, and community involvement. And in 2010, DAI was named the No. 1 company in Maryland in The Gazette of Politics and Business’ annual “P&B53” ranking, which honors the 53 “most exceptional” companies in the state.