Board member

Deme earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Western Washington College in Bellingham, WA. Born and raised in Ethiopia, he returned home after college to serve his country with posts in the Ethiopian Government. During the early years, his accomplishments included serving as the director of a vocational training school names after the then-queen of Ethiopia, leading a delegation of Ethiopian development and economics professionals on a six-month tour of China to study and report on how that country was addressing growth challenges in the early 1960s, accepting an assignment by His Majesty to organize, lead and execute Ethiopia's participation in the World Expo in Canada in 1967, and returning back to his country to assume a post in the Ministry of Commerce.

He later went on to own and operate a coffee export business until the rise of the military-led Derg, a communist government that deposed the rule by the monarchy and established a new rule of law in 1974. Then in 1975, he fled the country of Ethiopia along with his family. Once the family arrived safely in the United States, Deme worked in the MIddle East and eventually returned to the US to start three companies in Fort Wayne, IN: Hel-Mar, a subcontractor for the US Defense Department; MBE, a supplier to the automotive industry in Detroit; and ITG (In Trust of God), whose profits supported the operations of a newly-formed and rapidly growing aid organization that he, Marta and two of their friends started to change thousands of lives in Ethiopia called Project Mercy.

Now 92 years old, Deme resides in Ethiopia and is an inspiration to many by the exemplary life he lived as a passionate role model in the service of his Lord, family, community and country.