Conference Call:

Inside USAID's local

procurement reform efforts

Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.

Roman Napoli currently serves as the Deputy Coordinator in USAID’s Transformation Task Team and the T3 lead on USAID’s partnering and procurement reform effort, USAID’s review of our regional platforms overseas, and other efforts aimed at respecting the U.S. taxpayer’s investments in USAID. Roman concurrently serves as USAID’s Deputy Program Management Improvement Officer and is an acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Policy, Planning, and Learning Bureau. He previously served in a number of senior USAID and State Department position including being the Chief of Staff and acting Director for USAID’s corporate budget office, the Office of Budget and Resource Management (BRM), and he served as the head of Strategic Planning and Resources for the Middle East Partnership Initiative where he was the Financial Management Officer, Budget lead, and lead for strategy and planning.

Roman holds a Master’s degree in Public Service Administration from the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and is a Distinguished Graduate of the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resources at the National Defense University.

James Randall (Randy) Tift is currently Senior Adviser for the USAID Office of Acquisition and Assistance and Co-Senior Leader Champion for Effective Partnering and Procurement Reform (EPPR) under the USAID Transformation. EPPR seeks to elevate excellence in program design, partnering approaches, and aid delivery mechanisms to enable more effective locally-led development, flexibility, innovation, and diversification of the USAID partner base. From 2006-2017, Randy was Senior Adviser and Senior Director for Policy at World Vision in Washington, DC. In this role, Randy managed WV policy engagement in crisis response, operational risk, program effectiveness in fragile states, civil society strengthening, human rights, counter-terrorism, and other issues affecting WV brand, mission, and message. He coordinated US donor support for field programs promoting local advocacy and policy change as a critical driver of development outcomes in over 40 countries.

Randy graduated from Vanguard University of Southern California in history and political science.

Leslie Koo is a Nutrition Team Lead with the USAID Bureau for Global Health. She has previous advisory experience in nutrition with Save the Children International, Concern Worldwide, and UNICEF. She received her MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from Tufts University.

Paul Burford serves as Branch Chief and Supervisory Contracting and Agreement Officer supporting the Bureau for Food Security and the President's Feed the Future initiative. He has over a decade of contracting and procurement experience across a number of USAID programs.