Annual Meeting 2006 The 42nd Annual Meeting of The Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development
June 4-6, 2006
Speakers and Panelists
Mr. Jones has had significant Executive Branch experience, having served in key positions in the Nixon and Ford Administration during the 1970s. He currently serves as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Jones graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in History and from Harvard Business School with an MBA. Upon receiving his MBA, Mr. Jones joined McKinsey and Company, Inc., a worldwide management consulting firm and worked to solve challenging problems for multinational companies in the U.S. and abroad. In 1967, Mr. Jones founded his own firm to pursue acquisitions of small manufacturing companies on a leveraged buyout basis. In 1977, Mr. Jones returned to his family agribusiness in West Texas. He organized and directed a major agribusiness (cotton seed crushing) and an oil and gas exploration company. He also developed and served as general partner of an office complex in Midland, Texas.
In 1988, Mr. Jones returned to the New York area and worked on start up or turn-around projects for several small companies. During this period he was involved with private sector enterprises dealing with engineering and waste to energy and waste water reuse projects. In June 1996, Mr. Jones held several roles in the Dole for President Campaign. Subsequently, he served as President of three Washington area public policy consulting firms, Global USA, Inc. 1997-2000, CANTABS, Inc 2000-2003 (Co-founder) and JH Jones & Associates, LLC 2003-2005 (Founder). Mr. Jones organized and managed the personnel transition team for the Department of Defense in 2001 for Secretary Rumsfeld's Transition Team. He rejoined DoD as a consultant in October 2003 and organized recruiting the personnel sent out to Iraq to staff the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). He helped plan the transition of authority and functions from the CPA to the Department of State. Following the 2004 election, he served on a senior six person committee that screened and recommended senior DoD senior personnel appointments for the second term. He is currently involved in the planning and execution of rebuilding efforts in the Sunni areas of Iraq.