Former state Revenue Secretary Roger Ervin is leading an international organization through a rebranding and restructuring that will bring its headquarters to Madison.
Ervin is the president and CEO of International Relief and Development, which provides relief and development programs in war zones and other vulnerable areas. Although a judge has now ruled in its favor, IRD saw negative headlines during a months-long dispute with a federal aid agency that alleged IRD misused government funds.
The organization, having lost a good chunk of business, is now rebranding into a new three-pronged group called Blumont, Ervin’s group announced today.
“It was better for us to take the really important and valuable assets of IRD and reorganize it into something that we think is going to be a highly powerful and impactful international development service provider,” Ervin said.
The United States Agency for International Development had suspended IRD in early 2015, although a federal judge in July lifted that suspension and USAID now says it “retracts any statements” that the suspension was acceptable.
Throughout the dispute, Ervin said IRD lost 400 employees and $200 million worth of business, as IRD wasn’t allowed to bid on any new contracts.
Ervin, who’s been leading the group since November 2014, said the dispute came as a surprise to him, but he’s excited to bring IRD into a new stage.
As part of the restructuring, Blumont will have three subsidiaries. One nonprofit group will serve the United Nations and other countries with similar contracts. Another nonprofit group will focus on USAID and the U.S. State Department. And a third group, which will be for-profit, will focus on engineering and infrastructure innovations.
Another big shift is moving the headquarters from Arlington, Va. to Madison, which Ervin said will help tap into the knowledge at UW System schools. It also will partner with the private sector on anything from agricultural solutions to technologies that the Milwaukee-based Water Council fosters.
Ervin got advice from Wisconsin’s congressional delegation on the process, which helped IRD navigate through the regulatory challenges and paved the way for a move to Madison.
Blumont will start out with about 35 employees at its new Madison headquarters, Ervin said.
“The idea is to go up from there,” he said. “The sky is the limit. … As we grow and get back into the market and really compete, our hope is that we’re going to build and grow.”
By Polo Rocha,
WisBusiness.com
