Helping to rebuild war-torn Bosnia

IAVM President Renato Bacci offered a bird’s-eye view of a war-torn country on the mend during a revealing AV presentation on Nov. 14 at the museum. The retired Army Colonel arrived in Sarajevo on January 27, 1996, with an MBA and 24 years as a banking executive under his belt. His mission? To help rebuild the banking system in Bosnia after a devastating three-year war and, in the process, get the economy back on its feet.

Bacci spent the next 6 months teaching Bosnian bankers the western style of doing business while heading a multinational unit charged with everything from restoring civil institutions and jumpstarting cultural life to monitoring refugees and creating a transition plan. “Although the pace has been chaotic, it has been rewarding to watch a society come back from a terrible conflict,” Bacci wrote in his exit report.

After offering a panoramic view of his family’s military history and the role of Civil Affairs through the decades, Bacci brought the plight of post-war Bosnia vividly to life with detailed descriptions and revealing photographs. He then showed how the country was rebuilt and its torn social fabric reknit thanks to the dedication and expertise of the multinational team that he worked with and helped to direct.

‘