Improving Economies for Stronger Communities (formerly known as International Executive Service Corps) is an international economic development not-for-profit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. IESC was founded in 1964 by David Rockefeller, States M. Mead III, Frank Pace, Sol Linowitz, and other American business leaders. IESC has worked in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Eurasia, Asia and the Near East, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Geekcorps is a division of IESC. IESC's stated mission is to improve living standards by strengthening private enterprise. Since its founding, IESC claims to have helped businesses create or save over 1.5 million jobs, with projects serviced by a combination of staff, consultants and volunteers. History IESC's first board meeting took place on June 15, 1964, in Washington D.C. and included American business leaders including David Rockefeller; president of Chase Manhattan Bank; Ray R. Eppert: president of Burroughs Corporation; C. D. Jackson, senior vice president of Time, Inc.; John H. Johnson, president of Johnson Publishing; Dan A. Kimball, chairman of Aerojet; Sol M. Linowitz, chairman of Xerox Corporation; and William S. Paley, chairman of CBS. C.D. Jackson died in the opening days of his chairmanship of IESC and was replaced by Frank Pace. By 1965, IESC was operating in Thailand, where Raytheon executive Ray Ellis was assigned as management advisor to T. S. Lin, President of Tatung Engineering Company. When IESC celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1984, the organization was working in 74 developing countries. Since then the total number of IESC project countries has doubled to more than 130 countries. Practice areas IESC offers services in the areas of trade and competitiveness, financial services, tourism development, information and communications technology, capacity building, and health and business training services. Throughout its 50-year history, IESC has developed expertise in technical, managerial and professional assistance consulting; micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise support; market development; institution strengthening; quality enhancement; grants management; health and human resources; public administration and policy; and conflict and post-conflict management. It often carries those activities out through training programs, workshops and seminars. Recent projects In 2010, Ambassador Thomas J. Miller took over as CEO for IESC. Under Miller's leadership, IESC's budget has grown from an initial $5 million in 2010 to $30 million in 2013. In 2011, IESC began a project to train 126 South Sudanese diplomatic officials and fully integrate South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the world of global diplomacy. In