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 2000 to 2007.
From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Scheman was the U.S. Executive Director of 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 of the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1975 to 1983 — and 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 — and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. He lives in Washington with his wife, Lucy Duncan-Scheman, and he is a farmer and amateur vintner in his spare time.
