When Bill Davidson announced the creation of the William Davidson Institute back in 1992, the primary goal was to help countries make the transition from a command to a free-market economy through a program of instruction, faculty and student development, and research. At the same time, the Institute would work to help U.S. businesses operate successfully in emerging market economies.

Davidson said his vision for the Institute was that it would “forge a path for those responsible for economic change in these emerging markets - that it will give them the knowledge, the methods and the blueprints for a successful transition to a market economy."

Fifteen years later, WDI has forged paths all around the world through its multitude of programs and research initiatives. It is a leading center for research on some global trends and plays an influential role in economic development around the world.

In the early years of WDI, the Institute – under the direction of Ted Schneider - had a few major functions. Those were: delivering yearly, six-week seminars for 50 senior business leaders, entrepreneurs and government officials from countries with economies in transition; providing internships for U-M students in Poland and the former Soviet republics; and funding annual fellowships to U-M scholars to go overseas to complete a course of study.

The Institute also hosted foreign fellows in residence at WDI and funded faculty research.

In 1996, with Central and Eastern Europe experiencing major changes, WDI’s board of directors wanted the Institute to become more involved in transition economics and boost WDI’s research capabilities. Jan Svejnar, an economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh, was hired as executive director. Svejnar was one of the chief architects of the Czech Republic's economic reforms of the early 1990s and served as an advisor to Czech President Vaclav Havel.

“Jan came in when the Institute was just getting going and turned it into a first-class research institute,” said Robert J. Dolan, Dean of the Ross School of Business and president of the WDI board.

Svejnar is the co-founder of CERGE-EI in Prague, a graduate program that trains economists from the former Soviet bloc countries.  It is the only American-style Ph.D. program and research center in economics in Central and Eastern Europe. Under Svejnar, the Institute helped establish or assisted in the development of American-style business schools in emerging markets such as the Czech Republic, Uzbekistan and the Ukraine.

During his time as executive director, Svejnar built up the research part of the Institute, including the transition economics working paper series that ranked among the most-downloaded in the world on that subject.  He also refocused the executive education program and brought all the international student projects – once shared with the business school – entirely under the WDI’s control.

“We became the gateway to emerging markets for the business school and the entire university,” Svejnar said.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also was brought in as the Institute’s first distinguished scholar,   She hosted a number of roundtable discussions on Capitol Hill and she spoke to the University of Michigan community on several occasions regarding international issues of the day..

After eight years at the helm of WDI, Svejnar was interested in spending more time doing research. Also, the situation in Central and Eastern Europe had shifted toward free markets requiring less intervention and assistance.   New global trends dictated a change of focus at the Institute.

In May 2004, the WDI Board of Directors announced that Robert Kennedy, who was serving as the Institute’s associate director, would take over as executive director. Kennedy, who also is a professor of corporate strategy and international business, came to the Institute in September 2003 from Harvard, where he had been an associate professor of business administration since 1995. Prior to that, he worked in more than a dozen countries as a management consultant and venture capitalist.

Instead of a geographic focus, Kennedy selected some conceptual topics around worldwide economic issues for the Institute to study. They are: the globalization of services; doing business at the base of the pyramid; and social enterprise. He wanted these initiatives to be practitioner oriented so it would be useful not only to those in the economics field but also to policy makers and business people.

Kennedy also built up the Institute’s Development Consulting Services (DCS) and pushed WDI’s Executive Education (EE) to grow and be self sustaining. Under Kennedy, the various WDI programs; DCS, EE, and the research initiatives; have become integrated for the first time.  For example, DCS and EE have worked together to provide training for policy makers and business school capacity building for the Government of Rwanda.   DCS and two of WDI’s research initiatives have teamed on a market based poverty alleviation project of the United States Agency for International Development.  This type of collaboration increases WDI’s impact and expands our reach.

He also looked for ways the Institute could increase support for international activities at the University of Michigan. The Institute’s support of student Multidisciplinary Action Projects (MAPs) and summer internships has grown, and WDI has reached out to U-M’s School of Public Health and School of Medicine to fund research and student experiences there.

Looking forward, Kennedy sees the Institute continuing to grow. He said it is likely that some additional research initiatives will be added. The new Educators’ Outreach initiative, set for a public launch by spring 2008, is poised to be a big success, Kennedy said.  There is a lot of pre-launch interest among international business educators from around the globe.

He also sees Development Consulting Services adding projects around the world and Executive Education looking to add new training programs to continue its growth. And Kennedy said the Institute will use its convening authority to hold conferences on the big issues of the day.

“Mr. Davidson has been very generous,” Kennedy said. “He has given us the resources to have a big impact around the world.”