Univ. of Maryland's Charles Cadwell Is Appointed Director of Urban Institute's International Activities Center

Contact: Stu Kantor, (202) 261-5283, skantor@ui.urban.org

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WASHINGTON, D.C., May 16, 2007 -- Charles Cadwell, a University of Maryland expert on the political economy of reform in developing nations, the relationship of institutions to economic development, and the implementation of legal and judicial reforms, has joined the Urban Institute as the director of its International Activities Center.

Cadwell, a lawyer by training, was most recently a senior fellow with the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland. He served the IRIS Center in various capacities over the past 17 years, including as the Center’s director (1990-2006), principal investigator (1998-2006), and vice president of its parent University Research Corporation, International (1991-2006). IRIS is a policy research and advisory center that helps foster economic growth and improved governance in developing and transition countries.

The Institute’s International Activities Center (IAC) works with government leaders, non-governmental organizations, and private institutions overseas on public administration and local governance, municipal and intergovernmental finance, urban development and the environment, housing and land markets, civil society and democratic institutions, and social sector reform.

Over the past two decades, IAC economists, urban and regional planners, sociologists, and other experts and analysts have undertaken development and research projects in more than 60 countries. Current projects are in Albania, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia, Croatia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Malawi, Moldova, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.

In addition to guiding IRIS’s growth, Cadwell worked on programs addressing economic liberalization in Nepal, commercial law reform in Russia, regulatory relief in Romania, judicial reform in Bangladesh, and legal reform in the Arab Mediterranean states. He was honored with the university’s Distinguished International Service award in 2001.

“Whether as center administrator or project leader, Chas has distinguished himself in applying scholarly excellence and intellectual rigor to the very practical challenges of bettering people’s lives through poverty reduction, economic reforms, and governance improvements,&rdquo said Robert Reischauer, Urban Institute president.

Prior to IRIS, Cadwell was president of Export Network, Inc., an export sales lead and information service (1988-90); deputy chief counsel for advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration (1981-88); staff attorney, then general counsel, White House Office of Consumer Affairs (1979-81); and lawyer, Pearce & Brand (1977-79).

Cadwell earned his law degree from George Washington University and an undergraduate degree in history from Yale. He is a member of the international advisory board of Bangladesh’s Millennium University and was a board member and the research committee chair of the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Business.

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