International Visitor Leadership Program

For more than 60 years, Meridian has been a principal partner in implementing the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) — the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange. Through short-term visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders in a variety of fields experience the U.S. firsthand and cultivate lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Professional meetings reflect the participants’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States. The program, which invites over 4,000 distinguished visitors to the U.S. every year, is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Meridian administers roughly 40 percent of all IVLP projects annually, working closely with cities around the country to arrange local professional itineraries on topics as diverse as: artificial intelligence, corporate diplomacy, cyber security, and more.

Over the course of Meridian’s long history with the IVLP, as U.S. foreign policy priorities have shifted in reaction to global events, we have adapted, maintaining a strong partnership with the State Department on these critical exchanges. In the mid-1960’s, we arranged programs for leaders of newly-independent African countries. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, we were at the forefront of a move to design U.S. itineraries for visitors from the Newly-Independent States. In the post-9/11 world, Meridian led in the design and implementation of innovative programs to support an evolving U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia. Whatever the geographic or thematic focus, through the IVLP, Meridian provides global leaders and the Americans they meet opportunities to gain knowledge, expand professional networks, and build mutual understanding in the service of U.S. national security and values.

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For more information on the International Visitor Leadership Program, please visit the State Department’s IVLP website.

IVLP Alumni

Thus far, 175 of Meridian’s IVLP participants have gone on to become heads of state. Among these are New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (2012); Britain's Prime Ministers Theresa May (2004), Margaret Thatcher (1967), Tony Blair (1986) and Gordon Brown (1984); Egypt's Anwar Sadat (1966); South African President Frederick W. deKlerk (1976); and current U.N. Secretary General António Guterres (1978).

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