Leocadia Zak on how USTDA has the impact, but needs to get better at the messaging

Leocadia Zak, the most recent director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, is the agency’s biggest cheerleader. In an exit interview with Devex just before she stepped down from her post at the end of the Obama administration, she praised the agency’s staff, held up its model as an example, and advocated that it could do more if it only had the resources.

By Adva Saldinger // 07 February 2017

This article is part of a series of exit interviews Devex is conducting with the leaders of Obama administration aid agencies.

One thing was certain when Leocadia Zak left her job as director of the United States Trade and Development Agency in January: she was leaving her favorite job and the greatest group of people she had ever worked with, she said.

Zak, who took up her post in April 2010, led the U.S. agency charged with project preparation and partnership building to support infrastructure projects in developing countries and in turn, job creation within the U.S. through the export of U.S. goods and services for development projects.

About the author

Adva Saldinger @AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.