Doug Clements

I will be unable to attend our 40th reunion as I am currently in Northern Ghana and will not return until mid-August. I was very much looking forward to following on from our get-together in 2006.

As for my life as an Aggie, the following is a brief overview of my life since 1969:

I continued on at U of M studying for my MSc in the Ag. Economics Department but did not complete my thesis before taking a posting with CUSO to serve as a volunteer in Tanzania from 1971 to 1973. After two very interesting years working as an Agricultural Economist in the Tanzania Sisal Corporation, I continued for a further 2 years in the same position on direct contract with the Tanzanian Government in Tanga Region on the cost near the Kenya border.

In 1976 I moved to the capital, Dar es Salaam where I was the General Manager of the Tanganyika Sisal Spinning Company, a foreign-owned sisal processing company which manufactured baler twine and ropes. In 1976, I also married Angelique Stephens, who put up with me for the next 8 years.

In 1980 I applied for re-admission to U of M Graduates Studies to complete my Masters after a 10 year absence. I was accepted back and returned to Winnipeg in 1981, completing the requirements for an MSc by the summer of 82 and departed for Bangladesh to take up a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) contract as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture.

I remained in Bangladesh until the end of 1986 and moved to Thailand where I started to do consulting work, mainly for CIDA working out of Phuket in the south of the country. I had the opportunity to undertake short-term assignments in such diverse countries as India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Indonesia, Barbados, Jamaica, Mozambique, Laos PDR, Zambia, Ghana and Sudan. In 1978 I married Nipa Taveesawat of Bangkok and in 1990, our daughter, Wasana (Jenny) was born.

After realizing that our daughter seldom saw me, I decided to take on a job that did not require travelling outside of Thailand and ended up in Khon Kaen in Northeastern Thailand where I was the CEO of Khon Kaen Dairies Co. Ltd, a pasteurized milk and drinking yogurt manufacturer. After an extremely interesting and moderately successful expansion phase of the company, I moved back to Phuket in early 1996 and in October of 96 moved to Ethiopia with my family to take up a job as a Senior Food Policy Advisor in CIDA’s Program Support Unit where I remained until the summer of 2002.

In 2002, I took up the same position in Ghana although the position of advisor was located in the Ghana Ministry of Food and Agriculture instead of CIDA’s offices. In 2005 Nipa, Wasana and myself moved to Winnipeg, residing in Fort Richmond. On semi-retirement, I managed to successfully obtain two multi-year monitoring contracts with CIDA which allows me to continue with involvement in agricultural development in Africa through 3-4 trips annually to Ethiopia and Ghana.

In the fall of 2008, with our daughter attending McGill University in Montreal, we sold our house in Winnipeg and spent the winter in Phuket renovating our house which we have had to more than 2 decades.

Our intentions for the future are to spend the winters in Thailand and our summers in Canada dividing our time between Winnipeg and our family farm north of Killarney. Just writing out my biography makes me realize it is time for retirement!!!!

Have an “OV Select” on me
Regards,

Doug,
Tamale, Northern Region
Ghana