From January 2007
Morgan Williams
President/CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC)
Morgan Williams serves as President/CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). He was elected Chairman of the USUBC Executive Committee in 2005 and as President in 2007.
Under his leadership the USUBC has significantly increased its membership and programs. In February of 2008 he was appointed a member of the new Council of Investors's (COI) created by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Williams serves as a representative of the USUBC.
Williams is Director, Government Affairs, for the Washington Office of the SigmaBleyzer Emerging Markets Private Equity Investment Group. He became a consultant to SigmaBleyzer in 2001 and joined the company in 2004. SigmaBleyzer has been active in Ukraine since the early 1990's and manages around 1 billion dollars of investment in Ukraine.
Williams has worked in the field of international economic and business development for almost thirty years. He was born in Kansas, USA, and holds a BA degree from Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas and a MA degree in economics from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
Williams started his work regarding Ukraine in 1992 as senior advisor to a major food system development project in Russia and Ukraine working with U.S. agribusinesses that were investing in the former Soviet Union. From 1997 to 1999 Williams was president/ceo of a private agricultural input finance company in Kyiv.
Williams is founder and publisher of the Action Ukraine Report (AUR), an electronic news and information service that has been distributed worldwide for the past six years.
He is founder and trustee of the Holodomor: Through The Eyes of Ukrainian Artists" Exhibition and Education Collection composed of original artworks by Ukrainian artists about the Soviet induced starvation of 1932-1933 which murdered millions of Ukrainians.
Williams serves as a member of President Yushchenko's Committee for the 75th Commemoration of the Holodomor 2007-2008 and as chairman of the Exhibition Committee of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) International Holodomor Committee.
Williams is Trustee of the Dr. James Mace Holodomor Memorial Fund administered by the Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA) and is an Advisor to the Board of Directors of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF). In 2000 he founded the website www.ArtUkraine.com.
In 2007, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, Williams was presented a state award, the Distinguished Services Order, by President Viktor Yushchenko for his contribution to Ukraine's development.
Morgan Williams came to Washington from Kansas in 1977 to serve as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee for the ranking Republican on the Committee, Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan).
In 1979 Williams was appointed Midwest Director of the Dole for President Committee, Des Moines, Iowa. In 1980 he served on the personal staff of Senator Dole in Washington. During Senator Dole's 1987-1988 campaign for President, Williams was Executive Director of the National Ranchers and Farmers for Dole Committee (RFD).
In late 1980 he started his international work as president of a cooperative development organization in Washington that designed and implemented food system development projects, financed by USAID, in several countries including India, Haiti, Indonesia, and Egypt.
He represented the United States on the board of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in Geneva, Switzerland and served on the board of directors of the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) and the Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (VOCA) in Washington.
Williams was appointed by USAID Administrator Peter McPherson as chairman of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) in 1982. He served for four years.
Prior to 1977 he spent the previous 15 years working in private and public sector positions in his home state of Kansas. He received an appointment in 1968 from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Clifford Hardin to serve as Kansas State Director of the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA), the major rural and agricultural development agency of the USDA. He served for 8 years.
