·         Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT), an international platform for young entrepreneurs in the Americas.  Roy Thomasson is an international pioneer in the field of entrepreneurship for young people and has worked youth employment and entrepreneur programs for young people for the Organization of American States since 1985.

 §       He has extensive experience in international development, focusing on program design, startup, management, and evaluation of programs to combat youth poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.

§       As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Young Americas Business Trust, he created a US non-profit corporation affiliated with the General Secretariat of the OAS and the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development in follow-up to the three Presidential Summits of the Americas.  This organization creates a strategic alliance between the OAS and governmental and private sector organizations to promote entrepreneurship for young people at all levels.

§       Since 1994, he as been Principal Specialist at the OAS working with OAS Member States, the international business community, and nongovernmental organizations to design, develop, and manage a wide range of skills training, entrepreneurial, technology, and related programs targeted to young people as entrepreneurs and future business leaders.

       He also works with universities and other international - regional organizations in social development, organizing high-level meetings, videoconferences, presentations, on entrepreneurship, poverty, and youth.

§       He advises international organizations, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on strategies and programs.

§       From 1985 until 1993 he was Project Chief of the OAS Caribbean Youth in Business Project working with the Ministries of Education and Youth, as well as regional organizations in thirteen OAS Member States in the Caribbean.

§       Roy has worked in the field of youth employment, skills training and entrepreneurship since serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysian Borneo, 1968 – 70.

§       Roy Thomasson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in International Studies.