Administrator Samantha Power at a Swearing-in Ceremony for David Billings as Mission Director for Honduras

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you so much. It's really great to be here. Mileydi [Guilarte], thank you for your leadership for presiding over so many of these wonderful ceremonies, which I think are the highlights of most of our days and weeks and months in these roles because they give us a chance to pause and to reflect on the incredible caliber of public servant that this Agency has attracted.

Let me thank Ambassador [Javier Efraín] Bú. It feels like you were here just yesterday, swearing in Ken MacLean, who did a wonderful job running our Mission, including for several years before he actually formally became Mission Director. Ken, it's great to see you, and thank you for your service.

Ambassador [Laura] Dogu, thank you for making time for this, such a formidable, again, part of sending our incoming Mission Directors out into the world, but also just a chance to speak on the record about how important our bilateral relationships are - in this case, the relationship between the Honduran people and the American people. Thank you for your leadership and your partnership on everything from labor pathways to education, and more.

This is really exciting for me. It's not often that we get to do swearing in ceremonies while our Mission Director conference is underway. And so what that means is we have a sprinkling of Mission Directors who are here. But, the person I want to give a special shout out to is Rebecca Latoracca from our Dominican Republic Mission because I think Rebecca knows really uniquely what is about to be unleashed onto the world because Rebecca had the chance to work with David hand in glove over these last years. And I was, you know, one of my earliest trips, actually, was to the Dominican Republic, yes, after Honduras, it is true. But, watching Rebecca, Rebecca and David, and the way they work together, the left hand, the right hand, really was an inspiration and really shows, I think, how these partnerships can work between Mission Directors and Deputy Mission Directors - and seeing some confetti - it seems to affirm this idea. But, I'll come back to David's time in the Dominican Republic.

But, I can say in all my travels that I've been privileged to take in this role, it is rare that a Deputy Mission Director has stood out in the way that David stood out. And I just, for these last several years, I've been thinking, when is that guy going to become a Mission Director? I'm really interested in seeing what he does, again, unleashed. So this is a great day, to make sure that this happens and that David has a Mission of his own and gets to partner with such an incredible team as the team that we have on the ground in Honduras.

I want to say a special thanks to Jennifer [Billings], David's wife, a public servant unto herself, who worked at USAID back in the day, and now does a lot to promote food security around the world. I want to say a special thanks to their incredible 11-year-old daughter, Ella [Billings], who I've just met, who is not only wearing the most beautiful dress in the house, but also is an incredibly brave young girl who is heading off now to another adventure in a new country and just comes with an openness of heart, a love of reading, and a curiosity that means that she is going to be the life of the school, which starts next week! She's willing to even put up with an August school start date to support her dad. So, thank you so much, Ella and Jennifer.

David is famous, and not just from Ella, for being a perfect "girl dad," and so I guess, is helping Ella hone her cooking skills and her fine arts skills. It's not something many of our husbands-slash-the-dads in our lives do, so Ella should consider yourself very fortunate. You drew a very, very good hand there in your girl dad. Jennifer, as I mentioned, served at USAID. She's also a U.S. Army Veteran. And, again, one of the things that David has so embraced - the progress beyond programs mantra, and the need to hustle up private sector partnership - one of the things that David noted is that he's actually now married into the private sector, so he's learning what USAID and our partners on the ground need to make happen to make investment and partnership more attractive. I have something in common with the two of you, which you don't know about, which is that I gather you met and got married four months later. That's exactly what happened between my husband and myself. So, Ella, it was destiny for your parents, it was love at first sight. And, it's an incredible partnership that makes the world better between you, and so we're so delighted that you're taking this on as a very dynamic duo.

We also have here David's sister, Christine [Nickerson] and her son Josh [Nickerson], there we go. And, there are a number of people I just want to mention who have passed away but who I know are here with us in spirit: David's older brother Mark [Billings], his mother, Barbara [Billings], and her companion Herbert [Togo].

I'm sure that Barbara in particular would have loved to see this day. Barbara raised her children on her own in a small fishing town an hour south of Boston. She, too, lived a service-oriented life working for and later running a program serving children with disabilities in disadvantaged communities in inner-city Boston. And David used to tag along with her to work, playing with the kids and helping out when and how he could. Barbara also believed firmly in the educational and cultural value of travel, once sending, I gather, David and his sister on a trip to Canada on their own, at ages 16 and 14, just to explore and to learn how to make their own way. But that was Barbara's method, apparently: exposing her kids to diverse cultures and experiences and instilling a spirit of both adventure, yes, but also great empathy. As Christine said, "Since then, David has made the world his home. I think our mother had everything to do with that."

When David got to university, his passion for understanding the world grew and grew. He minored in Italian and took a year abroad in Rome, where he worked on news stories for the Vatican Radio. This was in 1994, though, the year of the horrific genocide in Rwanda. And working on covering the Rwandan genocide as a reporter, he collected interviews and translated stories - stories of the unimaginable horrors that were taking place on the ground, of devastated aid workers who felt helpless and couldn't reach people in need, and perhaps most disturbingly to an idealistic, young American, the failure of anyone in the outside world to step in to help those people who are being targeted just because of their ethnicity.

This shook him to his core, and he committed to helping the world carve a different path. He went into graduate school for public and international affairs, took a scholarship for more language studies overseas, this time to Armenia, and then began working for USAID, first as a contractor and then as a Foreign Service Officer.

His first overseas assignment as a Foreign Service Officer came in 2005 when he was posted to Afghanistan - he's looking at someone over there. As one might expect, this was a challenging post. David, then a junior officer, found himself in charge of the program office during the holidays. Home alone. At the time, USAID provided fuel to Kabul's power plant, and the supply was running dangerously low, with Pakistan blocking the next shipment of fuel from crossing the border into Afghanistan. The Ambassador tasked David and another junior officer named Eric Kite to quote, "Keep the lights on in Kabul." Even more important than the lights was the heating. It was winter in Kabul, and temperatures in the city were regularly below freezing. According to Eric, despite intense pressure from the Ambassador as the fuel supply dwindled, David remained calm and cool, tenaciously pursuing every angle for a solution with USAID's team and contractors, but also communicating effectively to them about the enormous ramifications of a potential power outage. The team negotiated a mutually agreeable solution with Pakistan, and the fuel reached Kabul just hours before depletion. Eric said: "What I learned was that in a crisis, I want David Billings by my side."

Following Afghanistan, David's next assignment was Nepal. The country was emerging from decades of instability as formerly warring groups came together to engage in negotiations, and as the country drafted a new constitution. David found himself in a newly created democracy, and a newly created democracy and governance office at the very moment in which the country faced this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to solidify peace and strengthen democratic structures to meet the aspirations of the Nepali people.

David's strategy was to give the new team, especially his Foreign Service National colleagues, the space and support that they needed to build the future that they wanted for themselves. David asked the right questions and truly listened to his Nepali colleagues. He made himself a sounding board. He knew the right moment, apparently, to step in and provide guidance-but when, also, to step back and let others lead. He encouraged the Foreign Service Nationals to put their expertise to work, channeling both their stresses and their hopes into devising projects that would move Nepal forward on its democratic trajectory, supporting the peace process, elections, and new governance structures.

He promoted one Foreign Service National colleague named Sumitra Manandhar several times, empowering her with the responsibility and the resources to help establish a new democracy and governance portfolio. She is one of many at this Agency who directly credits David's mentorship and the care that he takes in growing the talent around him. She credits him for much of her later success. In her words, "David was truly an inspiring mentor and leader." Another colleague, Theodore Glenn said, "There have been countless times I've sought to apply the management lessons and practices I learned from David in Nepal. He enabled, empowered, and championed the talents of his team." Nepal went on to achieve several major democratic milestones: a new permanent constitution, several credible electoral cycles, and a steadily climbing score on Freedom House's annual report on political and civil liberties.

I got to see up close, as I mentioned, that David brought his vision, strategic mindset, and determination to empower his colleagues to that most recent tour of service in the Dominican Republic. When David arrived there in the fall of 2020, the people had just voted in a new administration that said it wanted to deliver on the change that people had demanded, even as they, of course, came to terms with a global pandemic. A key priority was revamping a critical port in Manzanillo to spur much needed growth and investment in what is a comparably neglected region in the Dominican Republic. Too often in these situations, as we know, it's easy for countries to award contracts to the first or to the only bidder, or to the one with the deepest pockets. It is much harder to set up a responsible, competitive, transparent bidding process and to keep social and environmental concerns top of mind. But, the government said it wanted to do it right, and in David, they had the perfect partner.

Officials reached out to the United States for help with structuring the tender and with creating a development plan for the region so that it could support the project. David latched on to this project, as soon as he heard about it. Galvanizing support across the interagency, he led the charge not only to meet the government's request, but also think even bigger. With just $1 million, David and an interagency team helped the Dominican government hold a transparent open competitive procurement process. And beyond that, they helped shape and implement a regional development plan to help local communities be in a position to take advantage of the opportunities that the new port would create, and to show investors that the region was ready for business.

Ultimately, for the port project, the government attracted a company that committed to doing quality work at a fair price, with appropriate environmental standards, creating good jobs for local communities - many more of which will come online in coming years in the process. Today, the port's first dock is operational and receiving shipments, including equipment for a new energy project. Ted Bryan, the State POL/ECON [Office of Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy] Officer at the time said: "Frankly, David made it happen. He has a big picture, forward leaning perspective that you don't see very often." I would note that Ted's daughter is Ella's great friend, so we are especially glad to have Ted and have your family here with us today.

Simply put, wherever David goes, he gets results. His "GSD score" - you know GSD? We don't say it out loud in front of small children - we say, get things done, GSD. His GSD score is off the charts. He gets things done on a very, very large scale.

He is also treasured on a personal level, especially by our Foreign Service National colleagues. Brenda Silverio, an FSN in the Dominican Republic, said: "David's ultimate goal was always to remind us that we are collectively working to improve the lives of the people. His time here really nurtured that feeling across the whole Mission."

David is going to bring that same spirit to Honduras, as the Mission works to support the people's vision for more prosperity, more security, and a deeper democracy. In 2021, Hondurans turned out to vote in record numbers, electing the country's first woman president, and embodying, I think, a wave of hope for making progress on the country's long-standing challenges. Today, the Honduran people look to their leaders to fulfill this mandate: to expand economic opportunities for young people to combat violence against women, which the Ambassador spoke eloquently about, to govern transparently, and to help people feel safer in their homes in their own neighborhoods, all crucial to building communities where communities can thrive.

USAID will continue to support these goals by working to expand education and opportunity, to reduce crime and violence, to help returning migrants reintegrate into their communities, to empower Hondurans working to secure what the citizens of all democracies have the right to demand: accountability and transparency from their leaders.

And, importantly, as Ambassador Dogu mentioned, Honduras will hold general elections in November of next year. In the run-up to elections, USAID remains committed to supporting a peaceful electoral process, and, of course, to helping ensure that human rights and freedom of expression are protected. We will continue working together to reduce violence toward LGBTQI+ people, land and environmental rights advocates, and members of the media so that citizens can freely exercise their civic rights and have their democratic will respected.

USAID/Honduras, as I think the team has a sense of, is incredibly fortunate to have David Billings taking the helm. He will continue to do what he has developed a really extraordinary reputation for doing: empowering his team to find and deliver on creative solutions for massive challenges - and that's fundamentally the world that we're living in today - taking ambitious goals, and turning those goals into lived realities for the citizens of the communities in which we are working.

As his mentor and USAID senior leader Jim Bever said, "David keeps his eye on the lodestar of making the biggest difference for the most people. In the face of challenge, crisis, or trade-offs, that is what he always comes back to." Very well put, Jim. Thank you for that. And, congratulations, not only to David, but to Jennifer and to Ella as they embark on this great new opportunity for their whole family to make a huge difference.

Thank you so much for taking this on. Congratulations.

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