Jaime Acosta joined IFES in 2008 as Procurement Officer with the goal of creating a centralized procurement department to service and support all IFES projects. In addition to his passion for foreign relations, Jaime brings extensive project management experience in both public and private sectors of the international community. As a US Citizen, Jaime was raised in Mexico and educated in the U.S. After receiving a Masters Degree in International Business from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, he joined Bechtel International, Inc.—Global Supply as a Schedule Management Specialist. During his tenure at Bechtel, his projects included servicing all phases of the construction of several power plants in Mexico. Jaime then joined Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. (KBR) for five years as a Procurement Specialist. During his tenure at KBR, his projects included design and construction of the Kabul Embassy Project in Kabul, Afghanistan; US Department of State – Embassy Security Upgrade Projects; and several Exxon Mobil Projects in Texas, USA. In October 2008, Jaime brought his strong analytical and management skills to IFES. As Procurement Officer at IFES, Jaime serves as the organization’s primary point of contact for all procurement activities to support international electoral democracy programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon, Philippines, Haiti, West Bank, etc. His first order of business at IFES was to create a formal procurement procedures policy.