PROJECT MANAGERS

Currently, all MICROAID projects are initiated and conducted by MICROAID founder, Jon Ross, or MICROAID Board of Directors member, Leslie Winter. Technical experts and supporters from the U.S. are occasionally needed on a project-by-project basis and may also travel to a project site. Otherwise, consistent with the mission, most material, expertise, and labor is acquired in the field in economic solidarity with the affected locale.

JON ROSS – Project Manager, Founder and CEO

Jon Ross has a degree in Urban Studies from Columbia University, has been trained by the Red Cross in disaster response and evaluation, and has a certificate of construction skills from Habitat for Humanity, where he is a regular volunteer building houses in Los Angeles.

For twenty years, Jon served as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Achilles Track Club, a non-profit for people with disabilities. He ran the programs, trained the volunteers, and did the fundraising and PR. During his tenure, he was a regular speaker for groups such as the Crippled Children's Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and the Braille Institute, and was honored for his work by KNBC-TV, KNX- News Radio, and The Los Angeles Times.

Jon has also led travel groups to Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia, and Western China, and has worked in Thailand, Kenya, and Costa Rica. In 2002, Norwegian Cruise Line hired him to spend a week on a remote Pacific island doing anthropological and sociological research for the book, “Fanning Island: Republic of Kiribati.” After the tsunami devastated the coastal regions in the Indian Ocean in 2004, Jon was commissioned by a financial firm in New York City to assess the damage and needs in Sri Lanka. The goal was to identify a specific village where the company could help the local population on a grass-roots level. Working on this project planted the seed for MICROAID INTERNATIONAL.

LESLIE WINTER – Project Manager, Board Member

Leslie Winter worked for USAID in India, was an international management consultant in Washington, D.C., installing project-design and evaluation systems worldwide. He was the in-country director for nearly four years for Plan International in Korea and Brazil. Les was a commissioner for Economic Development and later for Real Estate in the New York City government and was Director of Real Estate Programs for NYU's Real Estate Institute. He helped found two for-profit companies and two non-profits (Civic Builders and Greenpoint Manufacturing & Design Center), and was the executive director of another non-profit for ten years. Les currently serves on the executive committee of five non-profits in NYC.