Les McBride is USAID's Country Representative to Chad. Mr. McBride came to Chad in 1974 to teach English as a Peace Corps Volunteer and has remained there for 43 years working alternately for Peace Corps, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the U.S. State Department. He has managed U.S. foreign assistance programs focusing on disaster relief, community development, food security and, most recently, programs that counter violent extremism. Following the 1995 closure of the USAID office in Chad, Les remained at the U.S. Embassy as a development advisor drawing upon resources from the Departments of State, Defense, Agriculture, and Interior to meet U.S. foreign assistance objectives. During the intense period of hostilities that broke out in March 1980, Les and his family waded across the Chari River to seek refuge in Kousseri, Cameroon, where he worked under contract to USAID at a refugee camp hosting 100,000 Chadians. He returned to N’Djaména in 1981 as Libyan forces withdrew to Chad’s northernmost desert region and during the next two decades raised a family of five children who attended Chadian primary schools, completed their secondary education in the United States, and enlisted in the U.S. military: three in the U.S. Marine Corps and two in the U.S. Navy. Four of the five McBride children remain in active service.
Les holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and despite his length of time in Chad still considers Seattle his home.