This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
In 1992, William Harrington ’70 went to El Salvador to observe the first elections after its civil war.
“As I was about to leave for that trip, a good friend told me that it would change my life forever,” he says. “He was right. While there, it occurred to me that the work I was doing at home in economic development was good, but that it could be so much more useful to society if I applied it to third world countries. A few years later I started doing what I am doing now.”
Harrington founded Vista Ventures LLC, a firm that helps facilitate socially responsible investments in businesses that benefit the poor in developing countries. In the last year alone, he has been to Angola, Paraguay, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Argentina, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Hungary. In addition, he works with Mennonite Economic Development Associates, which invests in the lives of families living in poverty around the world.
“Unbelievably, 85% of the world lives in poverty,” he says. “There are ways of investing that can help improve that.”
Vista Ventures connects investors from all over the world with entrepreneurial companies in third world countries. It provides advice and due diligence for investors and consults for emerging companies in order to improve financial performance, governance, and visibility with socially responsible institutions willing to invest.
“My work in trying to promote investment has also led me to micro-finance,” he explains. “Rather than promoting suppliers of capital, I find myself looking to strengthen the institutions that would receive capital. I hope to move further into micro-finance and into improving agricultural industries in developing countries. Besides the obvious benefits, this can help reduce the poverty and friction that result in wars or terrorism.”
Harrington came to work in economic development as a natural evolution from the community development work he began in college.
“When I was at Lafayette, civil rights and the Vietnam War were big issues and they drew a lot of attention, even on a small campus,” he says. “In fact, second semester of my senior year the campus was partially shut down and our classes were primarily independent study. I did work having to do with public housing in Easton, even though I was a mechanical engineering major, because that is where I felt drawn.”
That focus on community development led Harrington to go into the domestic version of Peace Corps. After a period of years, he saw the need to move more into economic development.
“Lafayette was the foundation for all of this – it was a great place, and is an even better place now,” he says. “I was pleased to reconnect with the College through my daughter Caroline Harrington, who graduated in 2004 in international economics.”