Consultants to the Development World ™

GBPG Americas

Built for a changing development sector

A dedicated practice for North and Latin America, led within the region and backed by GBPG’s international delivery base.

The development sector in the Americas is reorganising, and a generation of experienced professionals now works outside the institutions that once employed them. GBPG Americas gives that expertise a platform: a regional roster serving NGOs, foundations, and multilateral development banks, with bid development and quality assurance supported by our international team. The roster is growing across the region, and the practice is already delivering for clients in the United States.

Past Projects

The experts are the firm

GBPG fields named specialists rather than layers of management

Our senior team has spent their careers across the UN system, international financial institutions, and national government, and clients work with our experts directly. Between them they have led reforms in more than forty countries. Every engagement is led by a specialist with direct experience to tackle the problem it addresses.

The Americas Bench

The regional roster is being built across six areas.
The bar matches our global bench: former senior staff of international organisations, leading academics and recognised practitioners.

Climate & Water Adaptation

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Audit & Procurement

Public Financial Management

IT Services & Digital Transformation

Monitoring & Evaluation

Why Clients Choose GBPG

End-to-end delivery

We support the full lifecycle of a project, from initial design and structuring to implementation in practice. Clients keep the same team throughout rather than meeting a new one at each stage.

Built lean by design

No complicated organisational structure sits between the client and the work. Assignments are staffed small and senior, so decisions come quickly and experienced hands stay on the job from start to finish.

Proprietary tools

Our PILLARS toolkit tests procurement integrity before a process runs, not after it fails. A weighted self-assessment flags risk the way traffic lights do, drawing on practices used across multilateral institutions.

Cross-cutting expertise

Most of our assignments sit between governments, international institutions, and the private sector. We’ve held roles on every side, which makes us useful at operating in the middle.

Our Experts

Jaehyang So

Team Lead – Water Adaptation & Climate

Jaehyang So

Jaehyang So is a global development expert with more than three decades across multilateral institutions and private practice. She spent over thirty years at the World Bank in Washington, where as Director of Development Finance Trust Funds and Partnerships she reformed the management and monitoring of a $45 billion trust fund portfolio. As Manager of the Water and Sanitation Program she mobilised over $250 million and directed 130 staff across 24 countries, shaping the Bank’s $8 billion water portfolio. She developed the World Bank’s Public-Private Infrastructure database, now the industry standard. At GBPG, she brings strategic leadership and deep multilateral expertise, enhancing the organisation’s work with governments, international organisations, and development partners on complex and large-scale development initiatives.

David Bernstein

Justice Reform, Anticorruption, & Public Sector Governance Expert

David Bernstein

David is a governance and anticorruption expert with more than thirty years spent reforming justice institutions and public administration. He worked at the World Bank in Washington for two decades as Lead Public Sector Specialist and previously served as Deputy Director of the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. His current work spans the Inter-American Development Bank, where he assessed the coherence of its anticorruption operations, and the World Bank, where he supports the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission on integrity measures and indicators. In 2025 the Government of Ukraine appointed him one of three international commissioners selecting the head of its State Customs Service. At GBPG, he brings governance, integrity, and rule of law depth to work with governments, international financial institutions and development partners across the Americas and beyond.

Adam Shayne

Chief Legal Advisor

Adam Shayne

Adam is a leading authority in international development law, with nearly three decades of senior legal leadership at the World Bank in Washington. He served as Chief Counsel for Latin America and the Caribbean, and across Europe and Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East, leading legal strategy and risk oversight for some of the institution’s most complex and high-value operations. His work included directing the legal architecture underpinning World Bank assistance programmes to Ukraine during the war with Russia, with an aggregate development impact exceeding US$50 billion. Operating at the core of institutional decision‑making, Adam also advised the World Bank’s Boards of Executive Directors and Governors and played a senior role in shaping governance, accountability, and the integrity of development programmes. At GBPG he brings that legal depth to work with governments and development partners across the Americas.

Devon Cange

Enterprise Technology Expert

Devon Cange

Devon is a visionary technology executive with over 20 years of experience leading IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise application management across both public and private sectors. Currently an Associate IT Director at Ernst & Young (EY), he drives digital transformation initiatives, cloud migrations, and cybersecurity governance to enhance organizational performance and resilience. With a background in Computer Engineering and a Master’s in Management Information Systems with a Security focus, Devon has led strategic IT programs at the CDC, IBM, and other institutions, ensuring compliance with FISMA, HIPAA, SOX, and GDPR. 

Dr. Younsung Kim

Climate Adaptation & Sustainable Development Expert

Dr. Younsung Kim

Dr. Younsung Kim is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University, where she also directs the undergraduate program and leads the Environmental Policy and Economics concentration. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Public Policy from GMU and an M.S. in Environmental Planning from Seoul National University. With over 25 years of experience, she has advanced climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainable development across Asia, Africa, and the U.S. She is Co-PI of a $1.23M KOICA-funded UN program and PI of U.S. Geological Survey and 4-VA projects. Formerly with the World Bank and Korea’s Environment Ministry, she has over 30 publications and a 2024 book Environmental Policy & Management.

David Baxter

Public Financial Management & Public-Private Partnership Expert

David Baxter

David is a public-private partnerships and procurement expert with over thirty years of international consulting experience. He is a Senior Vice President of the International Sustainable Resilience Center, advising governments on resilient infrastructure and people-first PPPs. Much of his career was built inside US consulting, alongside advisory work for the World Bank, African Development Bank, and USAID. He currently supports the World Bank’s programme strengthening Ukraine’s national PPP units and advises UNDP on PPP strategy for Riyadh. He has led UNECE working teams drafting guidelines on off-grid, climate-resilient and post-conflict PPPs, and advises the Government of the Maldives on infrastructure investment reform and its national PPP unit. At GBPG, David shapes PPP and procurement practice across water, transport, healthcare and urban development.

John Corso

Organisational Capacity Development & Humanitarian Systems Expert

John Corso

John is an evaluation and organisational performance specialist with thirty-six years across federal, non-profit and private sector practice. He works with DAI on training and consultation for the Egyptian Government’s Anti-Corruption Initiative and has supported strategy and evaluation for the Center for Health Care Strategies, the Environmental Protection Agency and Court Appointed Special Advocates. He spent nearly two decades at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, where he ran the department’s programme evaluation work, designed a business process reengineering programme projected to save $738 million, and oversaw a $30 million consulting workforce. He has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University since 2002, teaching strategic management and lecturing on the McDonough School’s Latin America Leadership Program. At GBPG he brings performance measurement and evaluation rigour to programme and institutional reviews.

Dr. Aditi Thapar-Grohe

Climate Action, Equity & Sustainability Expert

Dr. Aditi Thapar-Grohe

Aditi is a leading expert in climate action and equity, with significant experience developing emissions projects aligned with the Paris Agreement. She has collaborated with governments, NGOs, and private sector firms to design innovative, impactful climate solutions that address pressing global environmental challenges. Aditi serves as a trustee of The Nature Conservancy in Ohio, supporting conservation and sustainability initiatives. As a passionate educator, she lectures on climate consulting at Columbia University and Ohio State University, mentoring future climate leaders through both theory and practice. Her work bridges policy, action, and education, emphasizing equitable climate solutions and community empowerment. Aditi’s leadership continues to drive meaningful progress in environmental stewardship and climate resilience worldwide.

Jim Stockmal

Organisational Transformation Expert

Jim Stockmal

Jim is a leading management consultant, author, and educator with extensive experience across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. He brings a unique ability to support NGOs, multilateral development banks, and international organizations in strengthening institutional effectiveness, managing complex change, and aligning strategy, people, processes, and technology to deliver on their missions. Throughout his career, Jim has held senior roles with organizations including Deloitte, BearingPoint, and American Management Systems, where he led complex strategic planning, organizational transformation, and business process improvement initiatives for major public, private, and mission-driven organizations. He has also advised leading private-sector organizations, including Pfizer, Ciba-Geigy, Royal Bank of Canada, CitiCorp, Chase, and Ford Motor Company and supported a broad range of public-sector and government institutions, including the CDC, FDA, U.S. Forest Service, Department of Energy, Association for Airport Authority Executives, American Society for Microbiology, and NASA. Across these engagements, he has provided strategic advisory support, organizational transformation, and performance improvement expertise. His work combines rigorous strategic thinking with practical implementation experience, enabling organizations to navigate change, improve operational effectiveness, and achieve lasting results.