Many consultants typically update presidents of small corporations on the progress of a project. In Dr. Kenneth Rubin's case, it is not unusual for him and his staff to brief presidents or ministers of countries.
"The smaller the country, the more usual it is," says Rubin, 52, speaking of an ongoing assignment in the former Soviet state of Georgia. "We have a very senior management team running the electric utility on an interim basis and keeping the lights on throughout the country. It's an amazingly rewarding endeavor that entails sitting down with the president of the country to brief him on how things are going."
Working through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, and governments worldwide, Rubin's team of about 100 consultants and 300 foreign employees is laying the foundations for economic growth worldwide.
Currently, his group has contracts in 50 countries. In Egypt, they are mapping the Red Sea coastline and helping to build an environmentally sound tourism sector. In China, they are supporting the Beijing Olympics of 2008 with an air-quality improvement program. In Romania, they are helping farmers organize into water-user associations so that they will be able to regulate and price their water. This is a critical first step needed to obtain a World Bank loan that will help rebuild the country's irrigation infrastructure, which will in turn help the country qualify for acceptance into the European Union.
Rubin has been a consultant since 1976, but entered the international development realm only in 1997. Prior to that, he had been doing mostly domestic consulting work, predominantly for the U.S. Congress. The international and government development space is much more outcome-oriented, Rubin explains. Clients generally know the desired results and are looking for practical, innovative ways to deliver them.
"I found a whole new world where clients were looking for solutions that were implementable and practical, and could advance whatever their objective was — job creation, sustainable electricity, clean water," he says.
Rubin heads PA's Infrastructure and Development Services practice, which is 10 percent of PA's overall business and specializes in energy, water, tourism, and the environment. The practice receives 75 percent of its income from bilateral donors and multilateral investment banks. The rest comes from state governments, sovereign foreign governments, and private firms.
Perhaps Rubin's biggest vote of confidence has come from USAID. As a result of his work, the agency has awarded PA three indefinite quality contracts (IQCs) worth a potential $950 million over the next five years to perform energy, water, and environmental work worldwide. PA is the only international consultancy to hold all three of these contracts.
Notes Rubin: "In the international arena, our work improves people's lives every day. I think that what I'm really most proud of is being able to contribute to U.S. foreign policy in very positive ways."
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