Rwanda
After meeting the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame in 2003, Ritchie decided immediately to partner with President Kagame to develop the Rwandan economy in the wake of the 1994 genocide.
To facilitate private sector investment the Rwandan Development Board (RDB) and Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) were formed. As of 2012, Ritchie co-chairs the PAC. He was also the founding-CEO of the RDB up until 2009. The New Times of Kigali reported that the “RDB is an institution that has been tasked with spearheading Rwanda’s development and tackling the most urgent problems and opportunities affecting the country’s economy.”
CNN, explained the focus that Rwanda has been getting from large corporations like Starbucks and Costco, “Why the attention to Rwanda, a land-locked country of about 9 million people about the size of Maryland? It's no accident. Many of the corporate ties between the U.S. and Rwanda can be traced back to a Chicago-area businessman: Joe Ritchie.”
Read more about this topic: Joe Ritchie