About us > Leadership

Overview
The New Development Solutions Group (NDSG) team offers a truly unique skill set that combines first rate analytical, strategic and project management skills with years of successful on the ground experience. You will not find any team that brings a greater level of passion nor higher degree of professionalism to everything that they do. In the end, we are always respectful of the inherently profound responsibility of our work and that success or failure will be determined by great attention to detail. Everyone on the team, from top to bottom, does whatever is necessary to provide our constituents with the most compelling opportunities to achieve short and long-term success.

Senior Leadership

Greg Van Kirk - Co Founder
Greg Van Kirk, recently honored as an Ashoka Fellow, began working in development as a Peace Corps volunteer in 2001 in Nebaj, Guatemala. Greg worked in investment banking for five years before arriving in Guatemala. Two deals he led at UBS during this time won "Deal of the Year" honors from "Structured Finance International" magazine. Greg currently splits time between working in the field and living with his family in New York City.

George Bucky Glickley - Co Founder
George ("Bucky") began his work in development as a Small Business Development Peace Corps Volunteer in Peten, Guatemala in 2001.  Before joining the Peace Corps George worked as a market analyst/ product designer for Advise4Stock, an Internet based company designed to provide entrepreneurs and businesses in "start up" phase with tools/consulting to create successful businesses. George graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2000 with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations in both Economics and Small Business Management/ Entrepreneurship. George currently splits time between his home in Florida working in the field...

Field Leadership

Zachary Smith
Zac Smith has been with the NDSG team since January of 2008.  Before joining, Zac was a Peace Corps volunteer from 2005 until 2007 in Ecuador.  While being stationed in Loja, in southern Ecuador, he worked as a business advisor in several different project areas including community banking, small business development, and organic agriculture.   After very fruitful experience in Ecuador, he decided to make international economic development a part of his life and joined the NDSG team. After spending nearly a year in Guatemala getting to know the many operations of NDSG and leading  Social Entrepreneur Corps, Zac is now back in Ecuador.

Ruairi Nolan
Ruairi first came to Guatemala in 2003 looking for volunteer work, and the country has never been quite rid of him ever since. Ruairi is a graduate of the Universities of York and Oxford, and has worked as a Reseacher at the UNESCO Centre in the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. He has worked at a volunteering charity in England, and also at Irish Aid in Dublin and Amnesty International Northern Ireland.

 

Miguel Brito Ramirez
Miguel Brito Ramirez was born and raised in La Pista, a small rural village in the Northern Highlands of Guatemala, an area known as the Ixil region for its strong indigenous history and culture. Although he was forced to endure economic hardships and to withstand a long and violent armed conflict in his area as a young man, Miguel always strived to not only improve himself as a person and as a professional, but to strengthen others members of the community and the community as a whole in everything that he did. After many years of managing migrant groups of Guatemalans from the Highlands during their labor intensive days cutting sugar cane on the coast, Miguel decided that he could have a much more profound impact on his community if he could focus and live and work full time in his hometown. In 2003 Miguel was hired as a waiter in El Descanso Restaurant and quickly starting climbing the internal ranks. In short time Miguel became manager of El Descanso and shortly after became National Manager of Soluciones Comunitarias . In 2006 Miguel also became President of the local "Asociacion El Centro Explorativo", the Guatemalan run organization that manages NDSG' educational initiatives on an operations level in Guatemala.

Richard Leo Sawyer
After graduating from the University of Iowa in 2004 with summa cum laude status and degrees in both History and Anthropology, Richard accepted what he thought would be a short-term, three month position with NDSG. Of course, Richard fell in love with the work and his short-term position gradually became a long-term commitment. Richard is currently completing  his Master's Degree in International Economics and Development at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Ashleigh Smith
Asheligh Smith recieved her bachelors degeree from Flager College with a specilization in Spanish Speaking Children. She served as a teacher in two rural communities in Guatemala as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2003 to 2005. Since then, she has received an M.A. in Bilingual Education from the University of Arizona and has completed a thesis on planning and implementation of bilingual education programs in indigenious communities in Guatemala. She is currently teaching first grade in a partial Spanish immersion program in Largo, Florida and continuously consults for NDSG.

Lydia Walker
Lydia began working in Guatemala as an Agro-Forestry Peace Corps Volunteer in Huehuetenango.  As a volunteer, she helped to protect and reforest over 100 hectares of land as well as to start an income-generating development project in the community tree nursery that included building a 3,000 liter water deposit and starting a small rabbit farm.  Using GPS and ArcView, she also created a map of the roads, schools, hospitals and meeting centers of the community she was serving. Before joining Peace Corps, Lydia worked as an intern for the non-profit MassEnergy Consumers Alliance in Boston, MA.  While there, she helped to increase sales of their bio-fuel products.   Lydia began working with NDSG in August of 2007.  Lydia graduated from Union College (Schenectady, NY) in June of 2004 with a BS in Geology.

Maria Luz Giambartolome
In 2005 Luz graduated from the Universtiry of Bologna, Italy, with a degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences with Development Politics and in 2007 obtained a diploma in International Politics, Cooperation and Development from FOCSIV in Rome. This development based academic background coupled with excellent language skills (fluent in Italian, Spanish, English and French) has enabled Luz to work with grassroot NGOs in several countries. In 2005 Luz spent 6 months working for an NGO in India to improve communication and project coordination skills of the local workers. This was followed with seven months working with rural communities in Guatemala through another grassroots project 'Ak'Tenamit'. After returning to Italy in 2007 to gain her diploma, she worked as an intern for the International Cooperation Department, became Mrs Giambartolomie and in 2008 decided to return to the country she loves, working with NDSG for what she believes in.

Michelle Berkowitz
Michelle started working for NDSG  in March 2008. Prior to her work with NDSG, Michelle worked as a teacher, tutor, counselor, and translator for several social projects in Argentina, New Orleans, and Guatemala. Originally from Venezuela, she hopes to improve socioeconomic, educational, and health conditions for people in Latin America. She studied at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and majored in Sociology and Latin American Studies with minors in Philosophy and Jewish Studies.

Timothy Trusz
Tim began working with NDSG in 2007 as a participant in the June 2007 session of Social Entrepreneur Corps.  Impressed with the work and enamored with Guatemala’s culture and people Tim stayed beyond the month long duration of the program.  Prior to joining NDSG Tim received a BS in International Development from Clark University in 2006 and spent several months in Latin America as a certified "Teaching English as a Foreign Language" (TEFL) teacher and taking Spanish classes with the Costa Rica Spanish Institute (COSI).