Fred Gregory
Executive Director
PeaceTrees Vietnam

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

Mr. Gregory is a seasoned executive with over 40 years of experience in the private, not-for profit, and public sectors.  He has consistently performed above expectations in complex humanitarian crisis in the field, and in developing successful long-term strategies for development challenges. Adept at creative problem-solving and team-building, Mr. Gregory has developed and designed initiatives and institutions to meet specific community and donor needs. In addition to executive leadership, Mr. Gregory is well-versed in the daily operations of programs including financial management, personnel management, field assessment, sub-grant management, program evaluation, and reporting. Mr. Gregory has extensive experience representing organizations in volatile environments including building fruitful and positive relationships with governments in Somalia, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. He has successfully managed USAID grants of up to $58 million.  He has demonstrated experience in diverse geographic, cultural and political settings including Southeast Asia, China/Korean Peninsula, South Asia, Central Asia, East Africa, and the Central America/Caribbean Basin.

EDUCATION

M.S., Education, 1970, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

B.S., Psychology/Sociology, 1966, George Fox University, Newberg, OR.      

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

March 2008-Present, Executive Director, PeaceTrees Vietnam

September 2006-February 2008, Country Director-at-Large, Mercy Corps

In the role of Country Director-at-Large Mr. Gregory was assigned short-term assignments in field offices in need of assistance, ranging from duties including Interim Country Director, to Advisor for specific sector assistance, management systems, program/staff transition assistance and other tasks as needed.

            Assignments included;
                       Guatemala, October-November 2006
                       Yanji, China, April 2007-February 2008 (China/N Korea border program)

March 2006-August 2006, Interim Country Director, Mercy Corps, Kabul, Afghanistan

Mr. Gregory filled the role of Country Director in Afghanistan on a temporary basis. He managed a portfolio of over $23 million in projects from the European Commission, British Government, and the US Government. The position oversees 8 expatriate and over 500 local staff. Mr. Gregory represented Mercy Corps to donors, the Afghan government, the UN, and colleague NGOs. He worked closely with country Security Management Team to monitor and implement flexible security protocols in a volatile environment. Mr. Gregory was responsible for administration, logistics, and finance of the country program, including three regional offices.

April 2005-February 2006, Chief of Party/Country Director, Mercy Corps, Baku, Azerbaijan

Mr. Gregory directed projects totaling nearly $60 million of community-based programming in Azerbaijan, including a USAID-funded umbrella cooperative agreement, Child Survival Program, and Cluster Access to Business projects. Through the USAID-funded 8 year, $58 million, Azerbaijan Humanitarian Assistance Program (AHAP), Mr. Gregory managed an extensive portfolio of sub-grants and integrated capacity building and sustainability measures into sub-grant management. He oversaw USAID-funded, 5-year $1.3 million child-survival program that is working hand-in-hand with the MOH to decentralize services, reform the health information system, and improve district level capacity to manage health services and make the shift to primary care. Mr. Gregory successfully represented Mercy Corps in building relationships and managed close coordination with the government, USAID, and other key stake holders.  He was one of three appointees to regularly advise the Deputy Prime Minister, presenting the entire NGO community, along with the Representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Chief of Mission for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As Country Director he was responsible for a team of four expatriate and 90 local staff.

June 2002 - November 2004, Country Director, United States Peace Corps, Uzbekistan and Bangladesh.

As Country Director, Mr. Gregory played a key role in re-opening the Peace Corps Program in Uzbekistan following the program’s suspension post-9/11. He was responsible for building and managing a team of 35 full-time and 13 part-time national and expatriate staff, increasing the number of Volunteers from 6 to 133, deployed in every region of the country.  In addition to management and program development and execution, Mr. Gregory developed key relationships with the Government of Uzbekistan, the American Embassy, partner NGOs, and local partner institutions.  He was a member of the Embassy Country Team working closely with the Ambassador.  He took the initiative of instigating anonymous Volunteer and staff “Job Satisfaction Surveys”. The results were high levels of volunteer and staff job satisfaction and satisfaction with management support. Under Mr. Gregory’s direction, the program in Uzbekistan received the largest amount of grants for Volunteer/community projects in the Post’s history. He guided the process for developing new MOUs with three Ministries governing Peace Corps’s projects and negotiated for a new Country Agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In December of 2003, he was requested by PC/HQ to fill an unexpected vacancy in Bangladesh as Country Director. In Bangladesh, Mr. Gregory managed the program’s growth from 56 volunteers and 13 staff to over 150 volunteers and 30 staff. He negotiated the development of new country initiatives, incorporating significant input from the Government of Bangladesh, partner institutions, students, community members, and Volunteers including new partnerships with five international NGOs to broaden the scope of Volunteers’ service opportunities.  Like in Uzbekistan, he served as a member of the Ambassador’s Country Team.

September 1995-February 2002, President, Esperanza International/Alistar International, Bellevue, WA

Alongside Dave Valle, a professional baseball player, Mr. Gregory developed an award-winning non-profit Micro Finance Institution (MFI) to fight poverty in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Gregory was responsible for all aspects of the organization’s formation, from the development of the board structure and program design, to the organization’s state licensing and in-country registration. He managed all aspects of external fundraising and hired and trained the Dominican staff. The organization provided training to loan recipients in loan management, business management, ethics, product development, and marketing. The agency was recognized by the Grameen Foundation as a model micro-credit program and awarded a multi-million dollar grant to expand its services to the poor. Simultaneously, Mr. Gregory managed the family foundation (Private Operating Foundation), Alistar International. He successfully moved the Foundation’s management office from Seattle, Washington to Managua, Nicaragua to capitalize on the office’s proximity to day-to-day operations. Mr. Gregory supervised the hiring of Nicaraguan and expatriate staff, program design, and field operations, in addition to assisting with income-generating businesses that supported local communities. Alistar received more than $2 million in grants from external sources, including USAID, prior to Mr. Gregory’s departure. 

1987-1995, President, World Concern, Seattle, WA

As President of World Concern, Mr. Gregory was responsible to the Board of Directors for all field operations, financial/administrative management, fundraising, public relations, and all representational tasks to the public and media. Mr. Gregory successfully led the organization’s restructuring to decentralize the management of Field Operations and field fundraising for program expansion using input from all stakeholders.  During his tenure, World Concern grew from an annual budget of $9,000,000 to one of $21,400,000.  Under Mr. Gregory’s direction, World Concern operated programs in 20 countries, with over 600 employees, and directly impacting more than a million people each year.

1979-1984, Director International Programs and Relief Director, World Concern, Seattle, WA.

As Director of International Programs, Mr. Gregory oversaw the establishment of regional program offices in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.  He managed a refugee response as a result of the Indo-China refugee crisis with programs in Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Mr. Gregory led teams to establish refugee and Internally Displaced People programs in Somalia and Ethiopia, and managed a refugee resettlement program in the United States.

1984-1986, Principle, Gregory & Associates, Seattle, WA 

As the Principle in Gregory & Associates, Fred developed consulting business opportunities with the international NGO community.  He designed and managed a multi-year, $11 million USAID-funded cross-border feeding program from Sudan to northern Ethiopia and Eritrea with Mercy Corps. Mr. Gregory co-wrote a study entitled Assessing Refugee Emergencies for the U.S. Department of State.

1969-1972 & 1974-1979, United States community work

In the US, Mr. Gregory worked with local community programs in Seattle and Portland to develop responses to community needs, including the provision of child day-care for minority communities, adult day-care for those needing assistance, after-school programs for underprivileged youth, and motivational programs for high school youth using National Football League professional players as motivational speakers.

1972-1974, Country Director, World Relief Corporation/Bangladesh,

Mr. Gregory was appointed the first Country Director for the WRC/Bangladesh program following the war of liberation.  Fred was also the co-founder of CSS, a Bangladeshi NGO based in the Southwest city of Khulna focused on increasing food production, economic opportunities and today, CSS continues as a very successful NGO with more than 585 employees working in the fields of fisheries and agricultural production, health (clinical and community health), micro-credit, job creation, child welfare, and various training programs focused on developing self-sufficient families and communities.

1966-1968, Internally Displaced People Programs, Vietnam.

Mr. Gregory began his international career with a consortium of three American NGOs in Vietnam, developing relief and vocational educational programs for war-displaced victims. He established and managed a feeding program for children, a vocational training school, and a housing project for IDPs.  In another assignment, Mr. Gregory worked with indigenous communities in the highlands of Vietnam in agriculture, micro-credit, and business development.