Professional Experience:
Mr. Kearns brings 20 years of international humanitarian and community development experience, both as an expatriate having lived and worked in southern Sudan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vietnam, as well as a U.S.-based Director, Program Manager and Team Leader managing teams engaging in business development and back-stopping a grant portfolio worth more than $120 million. In addition, Mr. Kearns has worked in development work in nearly 40 countries.
Mr. Kearns has written more than $250 million worth of successful grant proposals and managed/back-stopped more than 75 grants and cooperative agreements in the following areas: HIV/AIDS (funded by PEPFAR and UNFPA), humanitarian assistance work in conflict areas, rehabilitation/reconstruction in post-conflict areas, public health (including Avian Influenza), community development programs, agriculture, microfinance, forestry, water and sanitation, early childhood care and development, commodity monetization, primary education, psychosocial rehabilitation, grassroots community mobilization, anti-trafficking, involvement of minority children and women in community-led projects, and capacity building of local partners (both government and non-government) in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Mr. Kearns has a successful leadership track record, having managed up to 75 professional full-time expatriate (both technical and non-technical) staff and more than 500 national staff (in Bosnia and Vietnam) and overseeing annual operational budgets as high as $30 million from donors such as the EU, Dutch Government, USAID (includes Local Mission and PEPFAR funding in health and food security), U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Agriculture, World Bank, UNICEF, UNHCR, World Food Program, AusAID, Asia Development Bank, and government donors in Germany, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Finland, Austria, and the Netherlands. In addition, Mr. Kearns has obtained funding and managed projects from a variety of private donors (individuals and corporations) in the United States and 14 other countries in Europe and Asia. A substantial part of his work was in training both national and international staff in key adult learning principles, organizational development, and leadership.
Throughout his work, Mr. Kearns has worked in a variety of positions, including Commodities Officer, Program Officer, Program Manager, Team Leader, Business Manager, Director, and Operations Director of large offices in Vietnam, Bosnia-Herzegovina, United States, and southern Sudan. Combined with this 9 years of operational experience in three different countries, Mr. Kearns has also led and managed a U.S.-based team of 20 people (Program Officers, Finance Officers, Contracts Officers) responsible for writing proposals and backstopping a portfolio of more than $150 million in Grants and Cooperative Agreements in more than 20 countries. To support this, Mr. Ke