Interworld Inc., is a North Carolina non-profit corporation draws on the forty years of international and rural development experience of Roy Thomasson.  This experience ranges from early work as an Education Advisor in upriver areas in Sarawak, a state in Malaysian Borneo, as a Peace Corps volunteer, followed by ten years in rural North Carolina in workforce development with regional non-profit organization, Yadkin Valley Economic District, Inc. and a twenty-six year career with the Organization of American States (OAS).

​

The organization was created in 1979 and the registration recognized by the North Carolina Office of the Secretary of State and by the US IRS as a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) organization in 1980.  Our initial work was the development of an innovative project with the North Carolina Council of Churches to engage the experience and skills of former Peace Corps Volunteers in the state in the resettlement of refugees entering the country from Southeast Asia where I had recent, relevant experience.  We also were early pioneers in working locally as volunteers with undocumented persons from Latin America.

​

A subsequent project developed with the US Trade and Development Agency organized in-service fieldwork training of engineering students from Africa by matching them with appropriate internships and occupational experience as part of their university education in the United States.

​

In 1985 employment by the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS GS), an international organization of the thirty-four countries of the Americas, focused on small business development and youth entrepreneurship in the English-speaking Caribbean.  OAS labor market studies found that wage sector jobs were limited for school leavers and recent graduates.

​

This assignment formulated initiatives with national governments, the private sector, and international development agencies  to create self-employment for young people through entrepreneurship.  In over eight years as Principal Specialist the initiative grew to include all fourteen countries in that part of the Caribbean.

​

After transfer to OAS Headquarters in Washington, DC in 1994 this effort grew to include all OAS Member States, including Central and South America.  In 1999 another non-profit organization, the Young Americas Business Trust (www.yabt.net) was created to operate through a cooperation agreement with the OAS.  Examples of YABT’s major international cooperation activities with OAS Permanent Observer countries included projects with Israel and the Republic of China, Taiwan.  Employment with the OAS GS concluded on retirement in 2011 and, as Chair of the Board of Directors of YABT in 2015.

 

YABT continues to organize provide valuable support to triennial Presidential Summits of the Americas for the participation of young people in formulating policies and priorities relevant to them through the Youth Forum of the Americas.  Entrepreneur and innovation competitions, business labs, and similar efforts support the work of the OAS, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank in social and economic development.