Mezgebou G. Amlak graduated from Boston University (B. A.)  and earned a post-graduate degree (M. Sc.) from the University of Reading, U.K.  He is among the pioneers who established the CADU project in Ethiopia (A maximum package rural development project funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) modeled after similar projects launched in Indo-Pakistan in the early 1960’s.  He did field work in India and Pakistan in 1969/70. Assigned as a Senior Loan Officer with the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank (Aid-Bank) in-charge of the Cooperative Division, he assisted farmers throughout the nation with all aspects of development funding.  Fled the country in 1975 soon after the Marxist Military junta overthrew the government and the country plunged into chaos.  As Regional Representative and Program Development Officer for Africa for EDCS, a Netherlands/Geneva based International Development Funding agency, he served for six years covering some 35 African Countries out of Nairobi, Kenya and out of Dakar, Senegal. This is the high-water mark of his career – contributing to the African development process on continental scale. With Kenyan partners, he established a private company in Nairobi dealing with Solar Energy Devices (solar cookers) and continues to promote the application of solar energy in Africa in order to protect the environment and arrest the deforestation process. He has written several books on African related issue and has been interviewed by Radio Voice of Germany in 2001 and again in 2006 and also by the Voice of America (VOA) in 2005 in connection with his published works.  He conducted a seminar/symposium in 2001 at Purdue University which led to the establishment of the Dr. Dagnatchew Yirgou Scholarship Fund at Purdue. He was invited to deliver the first Dr. Dagnatchew Yirgou Memorial Lecture at the Alemaya University in 2004 during the 50th Anniversary celebrations of that university. The publication of his book “My African Diary” has led to an invitation by the University of Michigan and an Association of scholars and professionals in the area where he presented a paper and participated in a symposium dealing with African development issues held on February 22, 2006.  The subject/title of the lecture was:  External Development Funding in Africa in the 70’s and 80’s - The EDCS Experience.