Dr. Nedelcovych is the Founder and Chairman of AfricaGlobal Schaffer, a strategic consulting firm focused on project development, project finance, trade facilitation, and public-private partnerships in developing countries, with a particular focus on Africa. AfricaGlobal Schaffer (AfGS) is a project developer and boutique consulting firm that provides advisory services to a number of corporations with interests in agro-industry, renewable power, oil and gas, and major infrastructure investments. AfGS has also provided advisory and consulting services to a number of African governments, US government agencies, and international financial institutions.
Dr. Nedelcovych has a long and illustrious career sitting on the Boards of several commercial banks in Africa, including previously on Afriland Bank Cameroon, and presently the Vista Bank Group in Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso, and Vista Bank Guinea, in addition to previously sitting on the Board of the African Development Bank. He has been on the Board of Moodai International Bank (in formation) since inception.
Dr. Nedelcovych is past President & CEO of the Initiative for Global Development (IGD), a nonprofit organization that engages corporate leaders to reduce poverty through business growth and investment in Africa. During the four years of his tenure, he significantly grew the African SME participation in the Frontier 100 Leaders Program, and expanded IGD’s advisory capacity and strengthened the voice of private sector leaders on development issues.
Prior to his appointment to IGD, Dr. Nedelcovych was a Partner at the Schaffer Global Group (SGG) and became Chairman of Schaffer International Services, the successor company to SGG. For the Schaffer Group, he led the new project development and financing for a number of agro-industrial projects in Africa and Central America (primarily in the cane sugar and rice sectors) and was the lead Partner in the establishment of the Markala Sugar Project in Mali, serving as the Chairman of the Société Sucrière de Markala. To represent Schaffer interests, he was «seconded» as Country Director of Buchanan Renewables (BR) in Liberia, a renewable energy business based on biomass harvested and processed from old economically redundant rubber trees.
Dr. Nedelcovych served in the Administration of President George Bush from 1989 to 1993 as the U.S. Executive Director to the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. He was instrumental in formulating and executing the “private sector initiative” at the AfDB, including the African Business Roundtable and the African Export-Import Bank. Prior to being named Executive Director to the AfDB, Dr. Nedelcovych held the position of Principal at Arthur Young’s International Consulting Group, specializing in privatizations and private investments in Africa.
At the beginning of his career he served in the US Government as Peace Corps Country Director in Gabon, as Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator for Africa at USAID, and as Special Projects Officer at the US Trade and Development Agency.
Dr. Nedelcovych is on the Board of Directors of West Africa LNG, Schaffer International, Vista Bank Group, Vista Bank Guinea, Moodai International Bank, Fayus Inc., BO Group Africa, and Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI). He is a member of the U.S. EXIM Bank Sub Saharan African Advisory Committee and is a former inaugural member of the MCC Global Advisory Council. He is a founder and former Board Director of the Corporate Council on Africa.
He received a BA in Political Science from Yale University, an MA in International Relations from George Washington University, and a PhD in Comparative Political and Economic Development from Florida State University (in conjunction with Mohamed V University in Morocco). He speaks French, Spanish, Italian and Serbian fluently, and has a working knowledge of Portuguese.