Washington, DC
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Great. Thank you so much, Anjali [Kaur], for your leadership over these last several years, particularly on all things India. Ambassador [Eric Gracetti], I recommend many kinds of collaborations with Anjali, but not going shopping in India, I would say. You will come back with nothing left in your pocket, but she’s also a black belt in haggling. Well done, Anjali.
And Ambassador, just—what an amazing partner you are. It’s also just great to hear you spontaneously describing the centrality of this relationship to so much of what the United States is trying to achieve in the world. I know we just had a climate delegation visit, led by I think John Podesta, and talked a lot about the clean energy transition that has to happen not only in India and the United States, but all around the world. And we know that just can’t happen without what happens there. So, that’s just one example of all of the aspects of this partnership that are going to matter in our two countries, for the citizens of both countries, but globally. And there’s no one better to be leading that effort there on the ground.
One of the things, when the Ambassador was going through his very brief confirmation process, that I had the chance to text him was, “I just can’t wait til you get there, so you can meet our team.” And of course very specifically, the team that is there all the time—that is the home of so much USAID innovation in India, and increasingly in third countries—our Foreign Service Nationals. And so for any of them who are joining here today, I just want to say ‘thank you’ to you, and as Steve [Olive] and I and his family had a chance to discuss before this swearing in ceremony. You know, we just know that he is landing on a team that is famous worldwide for being at the cutting edge of so many different models of partnership between USAID and the major players on the ground, between USAID and vulnerable communities, between USAID, the host government, and third countries. There's just so much going on there that we learn from and try to apply globally. And so this is an incredible opportunity, I think, for Steve and his family, and it's an incredibly important position for us to put somebody of such experience and expertise into this role.
I want to do a little “this is your life,” not least so that the team that Steve will be joining has a sense of who they're getting, an even richer sense of who they're getting. But before, I just want to acknowledge Steve's family, his wife, Cristina, who I will say a little more about, who is also joining the USAID India Mission as what's called a Supervisory Humanitarian Assistance Officer. And it's great to talk to her about her excitement over, you know, India's own ability to take what it knows about disaster resilience and humanitarian response, potentially to third countries. I had the chance to be the Co-Chair of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient infrastructure. And this is a major area of priority, I think, for the Indian government, and I think it's something that Cristina can make a great difference on. So we're thrilled to have you going there and very grateful for your service, your life of service.
Their son, Kekoa, who I already mentioned, is about to start his freshman year at UC Davis. I suspect Ambassador Garcetti would have some tips on UC Davis, but just congratulations to you, Kekoa, on being in a position to join such a prestigious and important program. And welcome to Steve's siblings and their families. His sisters, DeeDee and Kelly, who are both educators. His brother Jeremy, who is a 27 year veteran of the Air Force. I also want to acknowledge Steve's mom, Carolyn, who is in hospice, and his father John, who passed away a few years back, who instilled in Steve the values that have shaped his career, both of his parents doing so.
Steve grew up between two small towns in Ohio—Ashland and later North Canton—where he was raised by a family of public servants. Carolyn Olive was a registered nurse who spent much of her career working in an educational center for kids with disabilities. It was from his mother that Steve inherited, apparently, his caring and supportive nature for which he is famous at USAID today. And I will say, just in getting to know Steve a little bit, I don't know that I've encountered anybody at USAID who expresses gratitude more often than Steve. And for anyone who reads about well-being and the emotional state, that is a sure fire recipe to a greater state of well-being is to smell the roses, and Steve just expresses a sense of privilege and being blessed and grateful, and I'm sure he gets that, again, from the home he grew up in.
John Olive, his dad, was a professor at the University of Akron who specialized in biological and environmental science. And back in the summer of 1969, the Cuyahoga River, which was famously polluted due to industrial waste from manufacturing plants in Cleveland, caught fire, stunning the country, and actually playing a fairly critical role in birthing a modern movement for environmental conservation that would go on to help spur the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. John Olive, Steve's dad, was among those working to clean up the Cuyahoga, applying his expertise in freshwater biology to turn the river from a toxic waste dump site to the hotspot for kayaking and fishing that it is today.
So these are the kinds of exposures Steve got growing up. But there was one passion that preceded service for Steve, and that was running, which, if you know about working in bureaucracy, in the U.S. government, you need a little perseverance and a little grit. And nothing like being a cross country runner to equip you with that. Steve actually walked on to the team at Miami-Ohio. The university gave running scholarships to the most promising runners on the team, and according to his coach, Steve was the “last one” expected to win the award. But such was his dedication and his investments, and he worked so hard that by the end of the year, the scholarship was his. At Miami, Steve majored in Public Administration and then went on to teach Biology and Environmental Conservation at a high school in American Samoa for two years. The experience was his first in international service, and he was hooked. He went on to complete a Master's in Public Administration at University of Tennessee, and later a PhD in political science with a focus on environmental studies at the beautiful University of Hawaii.
But he was quickly distracted by a different kind of beauty—for it was on his very first day at the University of Hawaii, on August 8, 1988 (8/8/88) that he met Cristina, known as Gigi, who was pursuing a master's in Agricultural and Resource Economics. The two spent the next 12 years in a great love affair, and in the early 2000s, within months of each other, they joined USAID’s Mission in Nicaragua as partners in service.
In the course of his 24 year career at USAID, Steve has served in Nicaragua, Peru, Haiti, Kenya, Somalia, here in Washington, which ends up being important as a Mission Director, and most recently, as you heard, in Thailand, as a Mission Director for USAID’s Regional Development Mission in Asia.
In each of these tours, he's had an outsized impact. On his very first tour in Nicaragua, Steve launched one of the Mission's first private sector partnerships, engaging grocery chains like Walmart to buy fresh vegetables and agricultural products from local Nicaraguan farmers, resulting in healthier products for shoppers and greater incomes for the country's poorest farming communities. In East Africa, he played a crucial role in establishing an American Embassy in Somalia and standing up the USAID Somalia Mission. When the Embassy needed a steady, capable leader, they called on Steve to serve as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, where he led complex interagency negotiations and ironed out essential security details that paved the way for a permanent US presence in Mogadishu, and this, of course, was and has been a critical signal of our support for the Somali people.
In Bangkok, most recently, Steve played a key role in advancing development relations with the Thai government at a time when Thailand was quickly transitioning from aid recipient to aid donor. Steve worked hard to strengthen USAID’s partnership with the Thai International Cooperation Agency, which has allowed us to leverage Thai expertise to engage with Laos on efforts to eradicate malaria, reduce air pollution, and fight trafficking in persons. And this, of course, is experience that will come in very handy as India seeks to do more and more, and we seek to do more with them, in third countries. When neighboring Burma experienced a military coup in 2021 and USAID staff needed to be evacuated, Steve worked closely with our partners in the Thai government to help bring our colleagues in Burma to safety in Thailand.
Beyond his effectiveness, Steve has been known from Nairobi to Bangkok for his famous mantra: Take Care of People. He arrived in Kenya in the wake of the terrorist attack at Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall. Morale was low, IEDs seemed to explode with more frequency, and the Mission had one of the highest early departure rates in the Agency. Steve would check-in personally on every member of the Mission and see how he could help them succeed. “He knew every name,” one colleague remembered, “and their family's names and when the kids were off the college and when they went on vacation that year.” That is just one colleague's reflection. No ask was too small for Steve. When one staff member commented on how her temporary office space didn't have enough light, Steve—the Deputy Mission Director—returned to her desk an hour later with a lamp.
He was an especially fierce champion for our local staff. In Nairobi, when the Mission would have VIP visitors, Steve would always make sure that Foreign Service Nationals were front and center, so that they could highlight their leadership and their subject matter expertise, but also so that the visitor would get the most comprehensive understanding of the country to which they were visiting and the community to which they were visiting. In both Kenya and Thailand, Steve championed FSN Advisor positions in the Missions’ Front Office, as well as a slew of Deputy Office Director positions for Foreign Service Nationals across the Missions.
In the words of one coworker, “Steve is the most supportive teammate. Without a doubt, he's the nicest human being I know.”
Steve's kindness, dedication, and experience make him the perfect fit for this new role of leading the helm at the Mission in USAID India. Our friendship with India predates the creation of USAID, and that has already paid dividends for communities in India, of course, and around the world. In India, USAID is using cutting edge AI to improve case detection and treatment of TB and HIV/AIDS. In Bhutan, we're supporting workforce development programs for young people and strengthening the ability of local officials to provide essential services.
More recently, the U.S. and India have partnered to address global challenges, supporting, again, that global transition to clean energy, expanding access to climate-smart agricultural techniques and technologies to farmers in Asia and Africa, and helping communities prepare for the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. And there is still so much room to grow as we think about these third country partnerships. Together, we have found ways to do aid better. We have guaranteed tens of millions of dollars in loans to small and medium sized Indian businesses to install rooftop solar panels. During the COVID pandemic, together, we mobilized over $300 million in commercial capital to scale health initiatives around oxygen delivery and vaccine storage. With Steve's experience in Asia and his history of innovation throughout all of his postings at USAID, he is well-positioned to continue this groundbreaking work. And rest assured, Steve, you will hear from our Foreign Service Nationals, as well as I'm sure from Ambassador Garcetti, the minute you arrive, all the new things that we should be doing and can be doing, and if we'd only try this, and if we could only catalyze that. That is what this team does, that is its daily bread, is innovating, being ahead of the curve.
Steve's kindness and effective leadership will be welcomed at the Mission after what has been, of course, a really challenging last year. Two colleagues who have been so integral to the fabric of the Mission have passed away, and we know that the team is still mourning their loss. At the same time, many colleagues have struggled to process the recent rape and murder of a female doctor at a Kolkata hospital. And these events have come at an already challenging time within the civil society space in India, as activists, change makers and development partners across the country have been targeted for making their voices heard.
I know that Steve will help the Mission and the Mission’s partners continue to support one another during this difficult time: to take care of people, the way Steve always has. And I'm confident that his spirit of gratitude, his kindness, his openness, are going to help build and strengthen relationships with our partners in the Indian government as we work together to promote open governance and dignity for all citizens.
Steve is the ideal candidate to strengthen the long partnership between India and the United States. And I'm just so grateful, Steve, to you, to Cristina, to your whole family. And I'm really grateful to the team in New Delhi that never stops trying to think through how we can do a better job to stand with our Indian partners and to promote dignity for the Indian people.
Steve, congratulations. This is really one of the most important Missions on planet Earth, and it is a Mission that we learn from every day as we think about how we can be better partners all around the world. So good luck to you. Thanks to you. And let me now exercise my privilege of swearing you in as the next USAID Mission Director in India.