William S. Loiry is the founder and President of Equity International, Inc. He has been a leader since 1989 in facilitating global reconstruction, development, investment, trade and security.

Loiry produced the first U.S.-Soviet business guide in 1990, the first U.S.-East European business guide in 1991, and subsequent business guides on Kuwait and Vietnam, all of which were instrumental in introducing American firms to new business opportunities in the regions.

In the early 1990s, Loiry traveled extensively throughout the former Soviet Union, often becoming the first American to visit towns and cities in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. He pioneered U.S.-Russian business training programs, hosting more than 500 Russian oil and bank executives on business tours of the U.S. between 1990 and 1993.

Later, Loiry played a pivotal role in the improvement of capital markets and other financial institutions in Central/Eastern Europe, including the development of export credits for Poland, banking for the Czech Republic and Hungary, pension funds for Bulgaria, and securities for Romania and Latvia.

Since 1996, Loiry has hosted highly-acclaimed Washington, DC conferences on the reconstruction and development of distressed areas of the world, introducing numerous U.S. and multilateral officials, foreign ministers and ambassadors, and corporate experts. Conferences have focused on the reconstruction of Bosnia, Central America, Kosovo, Turkey, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and now Iraq.

Since 1998, Loiry has hosted high-level homeland and global security forums in Washington, DC, featuring leaders from The White House, Administration, Pentagon and Congress. More than 4,000 top government officials and corporate leaders have registered for these premier events.

Loiry has traveled extensively throughout worldwide emerging markets. At the invitation of the State Department, he was a Member of the 1997 U.S. Delegation to the Fifth Economic Forum of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In August 1999, in the aftermath of the NATO action, Loiry landed in Pristina on a U.N. food flight and toured Kosovo. In January 2000, in the aftermath of a second deadly earthquake, Loiry visited Turkey. He then became the first American business leader to meet the new President of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, in October 2000 in Belgrade.