George E. McCown became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Business Academy in 1989, just two years after its inception. George is the Chairman and Managing Director of MDC, a private investment firm that partners with management teams to buy and build "Companies That Make a Difference." He is also a Managing Director of the American Infrastructure MLP Funds, an innovative family of private investment funds targeting the outperforming asset class of Master Limited Partnerships.
Before co-founding MDC in 1984, Mr. McCown spent 18 years at Boise Cascade Corporation in a series of general management positions. He was Senior Vice President, Building Materials Group and President, Boise Cascade Home and Land Corporation at his departure. He received an MBA from Harvard University where he served as assistant to Professor Georges F. Doriot (founder of the U.S. venture capital industry), and a BS in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, where he served as a trustee during the 1980's, chairing the Finance and Investment Policy Subcommittees. He has served as Chairman, Vice Chairman or director of over 30 public and private companies and currently is a Founding Board Member of ChrysCap, India's first indigenous private equity firm. George also serves on the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution & Peace and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a Director of Outward Bound USA (Finance Committee Chairman), The American Himalayan Foundation and the Bay Area Council. He works closely with the Central Asia Institute, which builds schools in the remote mountain regions of Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Academy Articles by George McCown:
• The First Ten Years: A History of the World Business Academy
• Building Companies that Make a Difference