L. Ronald Scheman

Former Director General, Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development

L. Ronald Scheman is currently Senior Advisor to Kissinger McLarty Associates. From 2000 to 2007, he served as the Director General of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD).

From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Scheman was an executive director at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). After leaving the IDB, he served from 1998-2000 as chairman of the International Finance Division of the law firm Greenberg Traurig.

His previous experience in inter-American affairs includes when he served as assistant secretary for management at the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1975 to 1983. He was director of the Office of Planning from 1968 to 1970. From 1961 to 1964, he was a member of the Department of Legal Affairs of the OAS.

In the 1960s, Mr. Scheman founded the Pan American Development Foundation, which pioneered the concept of micro-enterprise loans and contributed to creating new patterns of financial and technical assistance to micro-enterprises and low-income communities.

The programs that Mr. Scheman initiated in the foundation in the 1960s were instrumental in the formation of the famous Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the 1970s and have since become the bulwark of U.S. programs in developing countries.

Mr. Scheman is the author of several books, including, “Greater America” (New York University Press) “The Inter-American Dilemma” (1988) and “The Alliance for Progress in Retrospect” (1989), both published by Praeger. He is co-author of “Foundations of Freedom” (1965).

Mr. Scheman earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.