Bill Copland has helped a bank in Kyrgyzstan stave off forced closure. He has helped a fledgling company in the Philippines develop a prospectus to raise capital. And he has travelled to Moldova, where he was asked to advise on a high-school business education program.

Thanks to the Canadian Executive Service Organization, the former investment banker is seeing the world — but from a different perspective. Copland is one of 3,200 Canadian executives who have signed on to offer their expertise, free of charge, to governments and organizations around the world. CESO, a Toronto-based, non-government organization, matches Canadian volunteers with government and business applicants in 17 countries; the Canadian executives then act as advisors to the clients.

Copland, 62, has had a long career giving financial advice. He was a vice president and a director of investment dealer Richardson Greenshields of Canada Ltd. — which merged with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. — “And its many morphs,” he says. He worked at Royal Bank of Canada in Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto. Now semi-retired, he operates his own consulting firm, Pineridge Financial Corp. in Toronto.

His first CESO assignment came six years ago, shortly after he enrolled in the organization along with his wife, Susan, a human resources specialist. He had heard about CESO from a family friend, a retired shoemaker, and from a colleague of Susan’s who spoke glowingly about the organization and its work. Bill Copland was attracted to it because the assignments were short in duration, one to four weeks, which would allow him to do the volunteer work and still run his small business.

“We had heard about it for years, so we applied really with no expectations,” he says. “It just sounded like a very interesting and promising organization.”

He and Susan applied separately and were given separate assignments in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. While Susan was providing HR advice to emerging women’s non-governmental organizations, Copland was working with a local bank that was fighting for survival. “The bank was going through a threatened windup by the central bank,” he says.

Copland started by examining the bank’s operation. “It was a matter of looking at the activities of the bank — all the things that you would normally do as a bank inspector, which is one of the things I did when I worked at Royal Bank,” Copland says. “I wrote a report saying that the bank seemed to be running pretty well. It was short of capital, which was a combination of growing too quickly and some ill-advised loans, which always took place in these countries.”

With Copland’s help, the bank was able to find a buyer — a group of banks from neighbouring Kazakhstan — that kept it operating. (Ironically, the World Bank-sponsored effort to close the bank was being advised by another Canadian, Michael MacKenzie, former superintendent of financial institutions.)

Susan was sent off to work with another NGO in Karakol, about 300 kilometres away. Bill Copland’s bank business was wrapped up, but a contact at the bank referred him to a professor of forestry who was interested in starting an artificial insemination program for cattle. Copland met the professor and was able to provide some advice on developing relationships with international funding agencies.

“I had done a public offering for a Holstein-breeding syndicate through Rich-Green, so I knew what I was talking about,” he says.

Meanwhile, Copland and the CEO at the bank in Kyrgyzstan had become good friends. “I invited him to come to Canada to take English as a business language prior to taking his MBA,” Copland says. “He lived with us for a period of time after he sold the bank.”

Copland is typical of CESO volunteers, says Josie Marchese, the organization’s communications co-ordinator. “Volunteers typically are senior-level, and are semi-retired or retired. The average age is 64,” she says. “They all have proven track records in their fields and bring a lifetime of experience to the assignments.”

Those wishing to volunteer with CESO go through a detailed selection process. The first step is a seven-point questionnaire to determine eligibility; only those with five years’ recent experience in their fields need apply, for example. Applicants send in a detailed resumé, and go on a half-day orientation session followed by a face-to-face interview. Successful applicants are placed on the CESO roster and may be considered for assignments that suit their skills and experience. (Details are on the Web site, www.ceso-saco.com.)

@page_break@CESO has local representatives in all countries in which it is active, according to Marchese. The foreign client who is looking for help from CESO fills out an application form with the assistance of the local representative. “We review the application,” Marchese says. “If it meets the criteria, we look for an appropriate volunteer to meet the needs of the client. We send one to three resumés to the client, offering a choice.”

CESO, which is funded mainly by the Canadian International Development Agency and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, is active in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as in some Aboriginal communities in Canada. It pays volunteers’ airfare, while clients are responsible for volunteers’ accommodation and expenses.

“This is not a vacation for volunteers,” Marchese says. “It’s hard work Some say it is a bit of an adventure. They get to meet people and have experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have. Sometimes they develop close connections to the clients.”

Copland agrees: “The experience was so positive, I just can’t imagine not doing it again.” IE