Paul Vollmer Applegarth (born April 21, 1946) is an American business executive, financial consultant, banker, and lawyer.^[1][2] He was the first chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, President George W. Bush's flagship project to provide development aid to poor countries.^[3][4]

Applegarth was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Alice (née Vollmer) and William "Bill" Francis Applegarth, an engineer, college professor, and manufacturer of air conditioners.^[5][6] The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1947 where Applegarth was raised.^[7][8][9]

He attended the Christ the King School, before going to the Marist School where he was manager of the football team and graduated in 1964.^[5] Applegarth attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. cum laude in economics, with a minor in corporate finance and development, in 1968.^[2][5][7] While there, he was a member of the fraternity of St. Anthony Hall.

From 1968 to 1970, he served as a lieutenant, then captain, in the United States Army during the Vietnam War.^[3] He describes his role in Vietnam as "part Peace Corps and part Special Forces."^[3] In addition to combat, he built schools and trained village chiefs.^[3]

Applegarth received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974.^[2][3] He received First Year Honors and was a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School.^[2][7]

Applegarth began his career with World Bank in 1974, remaining there until 1983.^[3] From 1981 through 1982, he was a White House Fellow.^[2] He worked for Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).^[2] He was also a senior advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United States Department of State.^[5]

He worked at Bank of America in San Francisco as head of North American investment banking and head of the global project finance business from 1983 to 1986.^[2] He was also a financier with American Express/Lehman Brothers in New York City from 1987 to 1994.^[3][2] Applegarth was a loaned executive, becoming the chief financial officer of the United Way of America and helping the nonprofit recover from a financial scandal.^[3][4][5] In 1994, He became managing director of the Emerging Markets Partnership, working in England, Hong Kong, and Washington D.C. until 2003.^[2][5]

Applegarth was managing director and chief operating officer of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund from 2001 to 2002.^[2] Sponsored by European governments, this fund combined private sector money with public funding to build power plants, roads, and other infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa.^[3] Applegarth then became chief executive officer of the consulting firm, Value Enhancement International.^[4]

In 2004, President George W. Bush appointed Applegarth as the first chief executive officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).^[3] A new approach to foreign aid, MCC was established as an independent government organization.^[3] It awarded grants to partners, some of the poorest countries in the world, who are committed to economic and political freedom.^[3][10] Applegarth said the job “represents a culmination of an awful lot I’ve done in my life. The job and the whole mission seemed to be made for me.”^[3] In June 2005, he announced that he would be stepping down from his CEO position after just eleven months.^[10]

He was a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund from 2005 to 2006.^[2] In 2009, Applegarth joined Finnacle Financial Advisors, an international investment bank group.^[2]

• Alumnus of Year, Marist School, 2000^[5]
• White House Fellows, 1981–1982^[2]
• Baker Scholar, Harvard Business School, 1974^[2]

His family lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.^[5] However, they moved to Naples, Florida sometime before 2015.^[6][9] He is president of The Applegarth Tubman Medicine Hill Preservation and Educational Foundation in Maryland.^[11] He speaks Chinese, French, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.^[5]

Paul Applegate C–SPAN interview