Before joining Sustainable Development International, Inc, as its President and CEO, Mr. Lanza was a Managing Director in Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector and for BearingPoint LLC, Mr. Lanza developed business and managed international development projects for clients such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Department of State (DOS). From 1984 to 2012, Mr. Lanza served as a US Foreign Service Officer in several senior management and technical capacities in Washington and abroad for the USAID. He joined the US Government in 1984. For over 26 years, he oversaw the development and implementation of economic growth programs globally including the Agency’s $2.3 billion effort in the 27 countries of Europe and Eurasia as the Director of Economic Growth. More recently, Mr. Lanza is providing independent consulting services for USAID, corporations, small businesses, and NGO’s assisting in strategic and organizational development for managing and growing their international development business. Recent engagements include USAID/Jordan (where he developed, edited, analyzed an Inclusive Growth Assessment for Jordan), TetraTech, JEAustin & Associates, IBI, and SNV USA (now DevWorks, Int.) among others.
Mr. Lanza has lived and worked in developing countries for over 26 years, including Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica among others. His professional experiences and expertise include management and support of the economic growth and private sector development portfolios for countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Eurasia. As Director of Economic Growth for the 27 countries that comprised USAID’s Europe and Eurasia Bureau (EE/EG), he led a staff of 53 professionals to develop and implement programs in Macroeconomic Policy, Fiscal, Financial, Legal and Institutional Reforms, Privatization, Banking and Capital Markets, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Micro Enterprise Development, Agribusiness Development and Enterprise Development Funds. In his nearly three-decade Foreign Service career with USAID, Mr. Lanza consistently demonstrated his technical and managerial leadership. In 2003, while in USAID, Mr. Lanza was asked to serve (seconded) as the Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Assistant to the President in the Executive Office of the President in the White House where he developed, managed and oversaw a Presidential Initiative and created an Executive Order, signed by the president.
In December 2004, Mr. Lanza retired from US Government service and joined BearingPoint Inc. As the Managing Director for its global practice in National Competitiveness and Enterprise Development operating from corporate headquarters in McLean, Virginia from January 2005 through May 2009 he oversaw global economic growth technical activities spanning the range of Global Business, competitiveness, Trade and Investment (GBTI). With over three decades of living and working in developing country environments, Mr. Lanza has successfully conceptualized, designed, developed, managed and implemented economic growth programs in all regions of the globe, including export development and investment promotion activities. His responsibilities at BearingPoint included spearheading economic growth work on USAID’s $10m Cyprus Partnership for Economic Growth project, and leading private sector development within the $126 million USAID/Egypt TAPR II policy reform project. He also successfully helped to strategize and then drive the effort to win USAID’s Jordan $70m SABEQ program, an activity focused on creating national competitiveness. He then oversaw the private sector component of that activity. Mr. Lanza also managed USAID’s East Africa Competitiveness Hub, a $20 million regional activity and was also responsible for leading the proposal development and then managing USAID’s GBTI II, with a $2 billion budget ceiling.
In May of 2009, the acting Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) ask Mr. Lanza to return to the Foreign Service as the Senior Director for Management and Advisor to the Administrator. During that period (2009-2012) he also acted as that Agency’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) overseeing the Agency’s management and operations, the Development Leadership Initiative and coordinating change management and technical program efforts.
Early in his career, he was an executive for Burroughs Corporation based in Miami, Florida and prior to that position was employed as the General Manager for O.H.S. Transport Ltd., based in Essex, England. Immediately prior to starting his Foreign Service career with the US Government in 1984, Mr. Lanza held the executive position of Marketing Coordinator for Latin America for CBS, Inc.
Mr. Lanza’s academic qualifications, including an M.B.A. in Finance and M.A. in International Development Policy from Duke University, strongly underpin his technical, managerial and operational leadership experience. These are further augmented by several USAID-specific certifications in project and program management, including the seminal “Development Studies Program,” where he received a certificate in Economics from The American University with honors.