Honoring the memory of Ukraine’s friend Morgan Williams: American by birth and Ukrainian by choice

Who was Morgan Williams?

Brian Bonner: Hello, everyone. This is Brian Bonner, host of Ukraine Calling, with a special program. Ukraine lost one of its best friends this year. Morgan Williams was the longtime CEO and president of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, a leading business advocate for Ukraine and its arguably most important partner, America.

He was a personal friend of mine. For those of you who knew him, you know why Morgan Williams was so important to Ukraine and why the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council is also such an important organization.

Today, we’re going to talk about Morgan and how the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council will go on without its longtime leader, the values it holds, and we have two great people with us: Iryna Paliashvili, who is now acting president, and Eric Luhmann, chairman of the executive committee, joining us remotely from Chicago. Iryna, welcome to the program.

Iryna Paliashvili: Thank you very much, Brian.

Brian Bonner: We lost a good friend this year. I know you knew him longer and better than I did, but I’ll start with what he meant to me, the Kyiv Post, Ukraine, his friends, family, and the more than 200 members of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.

I bonded with Morgan over our shared connection to Kansas. He went from Kansas to Kyiv. He was an ardent supporter of the Kyiv Post and independent journalism. He wasn’t one to sugarcoat things. He wanted newspapers to promote Ukraine and its potential while calling attention to corruption and regulation stifling business. He wanted rule of law and, in the end, he wanted Ukraine to win this war. He was there to the end. We shared these values.

I was doing the program and research, and there’s just so much that happened between Morgan and the Kyiv Post. We would go to his events sponsored at the Blazer Foundation. He would go to our events. We were longtime members, and the dues were $5,000 a year, which is a lot for an unprofitable newspaper. But Morgan plowed all that money back into paid advertising, usually around the 4th of July weekend, where we are recording now.

My fondest memories are from when he took over the organization in 2007. I came back to lead the Kyiv Post in 2008. We didn’t know each other at that time, but we got off to a rocky start because he was a collector of Holodomor photos. We had published a photo identified as Holodomor, but it was actually a Russian famine. Morgan was a stickler for accuracy, and he called me on that. We corrected it and had a great relationship after that, which endured for many years.

Morgan never wanted to retire. He died at the age of 84 and only days before, he was hosting a webinar with Swedish economist Anders Åslund. He was set to do one the following week with Timothy Ash, a UK economist and Ukraine watcher.

This wouldn’t be my style, but I understand it. In Minneapolis, St. Paul, we had a famous sports columnist, Sid Hartman, who worked until he was 101 years old. He never retired. People asked him why, and he said he got more enjoyment out of being a sports columnist than anything else in life. I think the same applied to Morgan Williams. He got more enjoyment out of being head of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.

The organization started in 1995 as a small group, he came along in the early 2000ths and grew it from an ad hoc committee of eight businesses started under President Leonid Kuchma in Ukraine to more than 200 members. And he had influence in Washington, D.C.

You might remember the Great Grain Robbery of 2011, an attempt by ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, who Morgan detested, to monopolize the grain exports for the profit of the insiders. I got fired after we published an interview with Yanukovych’s agricultural minister. During the interview he lied three times, kind of like a child trying to try out different lies to the mother. And he got caught in all of them. And of course, the agriculture minister was pressuring us to kill the story and then got nowhere and pressured the owner. I refused to kill the story, got fired. On a Friday, there happened to be a visiting delegation of U.S. senators, four U.S. senators in Kyiv on a Saturday. Morgan, of course, put me in touch with the staff.

I was in the Intercontinental Hotel with the four U.S. senators on a Saturday. They used to stay there on a Monday. I got my job back on Wednesday. This is the kind of thing that Morgan did if he believed in something.

That is a long intro. You guys knew him the best, you and Eric. Maybe share your memories. And more importantly, I think people want to know, going forward, how the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council is going to carry on, because it’s been very important in terms of organizing events for Ukrainian officials in Washington D.C., holding receptions, and doing cultural events. And before COVID and before the full-scale war, a lot of events in Ukraine. So, Irina, take it away.

Iryna Paliashvili: Thank you. I actually have known Morgan since the mid-90s, and I have been one of the first members of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council since then. So I have seen the whole story from the beginning to the present time. I’ve been a member of the executive committee for 20 years and chair of the legal committee. This organization is very close to my heart, my professional life, and even my personal life.

I would call Morgan an “old-fashioned treasure.” He believed in friendships that required shared values. Not just anyone could be Morgan’s friend; you had to share his values, and then he would become a true friend and supporter. For me, he was a mentor because I was very young when we met. This relationship enriched my life for many years. So of course, it’s a huge loss for all of us.

It’s a huge loss for the organization. But we learned a lot from Morgan. Today is a completely different era—social media, instant gratification, instant decisions—but those values we learned from him are as important today as they were decades ago. Personal relationships and personal touch are of the utmost value even today.

Of course, nobody can replace Morgan. He was so unique; it’s impossible. They don’t make them like this anymore. But collectively, the executive committee of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, our leadership, Eric Luhmann, who is the chair of the executive committee, Greg Fishman, the treasurer, active members of the executive committee, and all our members can preserve this legacy and move the council forward.

But at the same time, we need to remember where we came from and the best traits of Morgan’s leadership.

The future of U.S-Ukraine Business Council

Brian Bonner: Eric, please share your memories of Morgan. Tell people what you do besides chairing the executive committee. Also, how do you see the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council going on, honoring Morgan’s legacy, but moving forward as he would have wanted you to do, of course.

Eric Luhmann: Brian, one of Morgan’s talents was to associate everything he did with a story, a piece of information, or a piece of history. In honor of your Minneapolis St. Paul days, I’ve got my Minnesota Timberwolves hat on here for you.

Because I hail from Shakopee, Minnesota as well. Morgan would always find a way to bring a piece of history into any conversation, event, dialogue, or communication. I’ll talk a little more about Morgan, but to your request, my name is Eric Luhmann, and for USUBC, I serve as the chair of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.

USUBC is made up of roughly 220 members. Every one of those members is a member of the board of directors, but we can’t get everybody together all the time when we need to. So we have a group of executive committee members, elected each year, consisting of 15 members and three ex officio members from the organization. I serve as the chair of that arena and have been on that council for a long time.

When I’m not doing USUBC work, my day job is with Amsted Rail Company, Inc., a big railway supply company that’s been active in Ukraine for many years. It’s about 150 years old, serving global clients everywhere.

I got to know Morgan best through the work of the executive committee. I’m probably a newbie in Morgan’s universe because I started to be involved with USUBC in 2015-16 or so, and it was because of Morgan. He invited me to one of their events at the Sigma Blazer facilities.

Morgan would give you an opportunity to ask a question and eventually sit at the head table. He would bring your company into the discussion and find out what he could do for you with the government he was meeting with regularly. He helped facilitate meetings.

Gradually, I wanted to be part of this organization. I’ve heard that story from dozens of people. Morgan helped you understand that USUBC was relevant to your business in Ukraine and brought you into the organization. As Iryna said, we’re not trying to replace him. His contributions to USUBC are so significant that it would be hard to do that.

First of all, someone would have to spend a long time trying to match his contributions, the number of years, programs, and events he organized. The staff loved and revered him. What we’re trying to do at the USUBC now is build off that positive foundation that Morgan and the team have already built.

We’ve appointed Iryna as the president of USUBC going forward this year. We’ll go through our election process as we always do in the fall. I have every hope and expectation that Iryna will want to continue to carry that forge into 2025. The team is working around the reality that some stuff will continue as it has and other stuff will change a little as we have someone else at the helm, putting her stamp on how we operate.

We have the full support of the USUBC executive committee for Iryna’s appointment. We’re going to ensure our members are served well and that Ukraine is seen as a key country for trade and investment going forward, despite the challenges Ukraine faces regularly.

Brian Bonner: That’s good to hear. Yes, Morgan is gone, but the values of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, your goals, and your ambitions remain the same.

Iryna Paliashvili: Absolutely. Not only is there full continuity of what we have been doing, but there were several programs that we introduced for our members that Morgan blessed, including the Legal Series, which are monthly webinars by our member law firms for our business members that bring a lot of value. There are new initiatives and more meetings for our members in Washington, DC, and Kyiv, Ukraine.

What is most important to preserve is the personal touch. USUBC was different from most trade associations because of this personal touch introduced by Morgan. He spoke in person with every member, and everybody knew him. It translated into our meetings.

Our meetings are usually smaller scale, where our members can meet the speaker and exchange information, whether off the record or on the record. Personal communication is essential to preserve because it’s one of the features our members love and that makes us different from other associations.

Brian Bonner: I’m sure you will. I remember one of our interviews with Morgan. He cited you, Eric, Michael Blazer, and about five others as key to the organization’s success from the beginning to now.

Morgan praised, criticized, could be diplomatic, and could be blunt. He closed off his last webinar by promoting investment in Ukraine and really wanted to see Ukraine emerge victorious from the war so that we could get back to business.

He also didn’t stint in criticizing the United States when he thought the policy was not going well. He wanted to see stronger support from America for Ukraine in the war. He called it slow and behind the curve. That’s a Morganism.

Does Ukraine need external management?

Brian Bonner: I have to say this. I remember because you’re a lawyer, you’ve given many interviews to the Kyiv Post to help us understand the legal system, what’s right, what’s wrong, and what needs to be changed. I pulled out a 2015 interview.

Is it time to scrap Ukraine’s legal system and start over with another nation’s system? Throw everything out and replace it with somebody else’s laws. Ukraine’s legal system and judicial system need external management. Find the most modern system in European countries. I have no trust in the current judicial system, which is being reinforced as far as I can see. It’s beyond fixing. Does that sound like you?

Iryna Paliashvili: That’s me, actually. We have to note that it was 2015. A lot has happened since then. Now we are on the path to EU membership, aligning and unifying our legislation with the EU legislation, which will largely take care of that.

When I was speaking about this in 2015, EU membership was still a distant dream. Now, it’s a reality. Whether the old Ukraine wants it or not, the legislation will have to be brought into compliance with the EU legislation. So I think it will largely take care of this problem.

Brian Bonner: It’s a long conversation, but we made some progress in the rule of law. However, we’re still picking a new Supreme Court, a new Constitutional Court, and a whole new Kyiv Administrative Court.

Iryna Paliashvili: The Supreme Court is in place and functioning well.

Brian Bonner: It was the Constitutional Court that had issues. And we have new anti-corruption agencies and a new anti-corruption court.

Iryna Paliashvili: Right, there are still some issues. The architecture was proposed to Ukraine by Western donors. There were all these bits and pieces and it took a long time to put this anti-corruption architecture in place. It was complicated from the beginning.

I think, looking back, the structure was too complicated. When it was proposed to Ukraine, I don’t think anyone understood how to practically implement it and how long it would take. Finally, everything is in place, including the anti-corruption court, and it’s functioning.

Brian Bonner: Is it fair to say that the main institutions, like the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the investigative agencies are not as reformed as we would like?

Iryna Paliashvili: Some of them are more reformed than others, but some are being rebooted again. It’s still a work in progress, but a lot has been achieved.

Brian Bonner: That’s good news. Still, I hope we get swift, sure justice.

Iryna Paliashvili: We’re still behind in this area. For our members and investors, this is the number one priority. When they come into the country, they want to ensure their rights are respected and that they can count on a fair trial if something happens. These are all expectations that Ukraine still needs to fulfill, but we are on this path.

Economic reforms in Ukraine: is there any progress?

Brian Bonner: Eric, USUBC was dead set against monopolization and oligarchic control, supporting competition and free enterprise. Morgan pushed for land sales for many years. Where are we at from your perspective? Regarding the railways, he wasn’t particularly a fan of the state monopolizing the supplies. Is there similar progress, or what is the state of play in terms of creating an investment climate that will attract people or investment?

Eric Luhmann: You mentioned earlier that Morgan was always blunt in his comments and discussions. He was a group of one, letting people know what the situation was. Working with him on the executive council at USUBC, he let us know where we stood on some of those issues as well.

Morgan and I talked a lot about the railways because that’s the industry I’m in. He started to use the word «demonopolize,» which we chatted about quite a bit. He was advocating for privatization of the railway. I kept telling him that it wasn’t an issue of privatization, but an issue of demonopolizing the system. Privatizing the Ukrainian railways was not feasible because it was too big and too monstrous for a private entity to manage. Other industries in Ukraine faced similar realities.

We talked about demonopolization because Ukrainian railways needed to move away from owning the infrastructure, all the passenger traffic, all the locomotives, and all of the freight systems. Since we started talking about it in 2016, some of these changes have become a reality.

Today, Ukrainian Railways owns 30% of all the freight rail cars operating in the country, with 70% owned by the private sector. So it has already been demonopolized to some extent. The locomotive and passenger sectors are still very much owned and operated by Ukrainian railways, as is the infrastructure. You can’t expect all of that to be privatized or demonopolized completely today, but having the freight sector be more commercial is fantastic.

Morgan had a real vested interest in the agricultural industry, coming from Kansas and working in the United States Congress with Senator Dole on agricultural issues. Agriculture was another thing where he was like: just let the state support the process but we have to leave it to the private farmers. He was a big advocate of pulling the state out.

All of this has started to resolve itself. The war today is not helping, but prior to the war, many of these monopolies were starting to see competition and investment by the private sector. There was a gradual natural breakdown of those monopolistic realities. Some of this was due to Morgan and his connections with the government and his constant reminders that the system needed to change for the better.

Can Ukraine count on any investments with war going on?

Brian Bonner: Oh, he stayed consistent. And so there is progress in those areas you mentioned, like competition and the rule of law. That’s heartening. But is it fair to say we’re not going to see big investment until the war is over?

Eric Luhmann: Outside of the defense sector, that’s probably very accurate. Even in the defense sector, companies are cautious. Many American and Western companies have travel restrictions for their personnel. However, I think there will be significant investments in the repair and production of military equipment.

The energy sector will also call for significant investments because there’s no way to band-aid out of the situation. In some areas, you’ll see major investments. In agriculture, there are demining aspects that need to take place and issues with corridors for exporting products.

In the railway industry, my company has a joint venture in Zhytomyr Oblast, but it has been disrupted since 2012 when Russia started its economic embargo of Ukrainian products. About 80% of what the Ukrainian railway industry manufactured went to Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia. The sector stagnated after the initial invasion in 2014.

There have been improvements, like Western locomotives entering the market. If those diesel locomotives weren’t available today with all the electricity challenges, the situation would be even more complicated. The Kriukiv Wagon Building Company in Kremenchuk, a proud USUBC member, invested tens of millions of dollars to set up a passenger wagon building operation in Ukraine.

Before that, everybody bought from Tver in Russia. Imagine where Ukraine would be today if it didn’t have that domestic passenger wagon building operation. So Ukraine makes investments in difficult and challenging times. And I have no doubt that there’ll be some medium-sized projects that continue to go forward and some major support from western companies and IFIs – international financial institutions. However, finding major capital-intensive investments will be difficult until the war comes to an end.

Iryna Paliashvili: Yes, I agree with Eric. It depends on the industry and the specific area. Two things are necessary to make investments more comfortable. First of all, it’s war risk insurance. Governments of our partner countries are providing investors with guarantees and funding, and private industry is also offering war risk insurance.

When the war risk insurance is sorted out, we will see more investments. Domestically, we need deregulation, demonopolization, rule of law, and fair courts. This is something which Morgan has been saying for decades. It’s still true. There has been progress. We already talked about it, but those issues have not gone away.

With assistance from partner countries and our own progress, we can create favorable conditions. Deregulation has proven to be a major catalyst for investment. When the war started, the government lifted many restrictions quickly, and businesses responded positively. Private initiatives and businesses contributed significantly to saving Ukraine’s economy.

And then, after a while, the government started putting those restrictions back, and now businesses are back at square one. The government should learn from this experience. When the restrictions were lifted, everything was going well. This might be a good example for them to follow.

Brian Bonner: We are moving away from Soviet legacies and sorting things out so that Ukraine can be a full-fledged member of the European Union while retaining its unique qualities.

You know, there’s one thing I wanted to ask, and it’s a small point about war risk insurance, because I had a program recently in the energy sector. And the problem with that is that they have very low limits in the war risk insurance. So they need to be higher to make a difference. Are you finding that in different sectors too?

Iryna Paliashvili: Yes. I’m hearing this from businesses that the limits are still low, but if investors from specific countries talk to their governments who provide the funding and the war insurance, that’s the message they have to deliver to their governments because Ukraine has no way of influencing this.

It’s actually different from government to government. I know Germany does a lot. I know Denmark does a lot. But those are just the ones that I was able to learn about. Now, I just want to make a comment. I want to say that the team that Morgan created, and now I’m talking about USUBC Associates, the staff.

Morgan had a real talent for finding great people, and we have excellent staff both in Washington, D.C., and here in Kyiv, Ukraine, and the team stays put. They are working day and night right now. We are very fortunate to inherit Morgan’s team. This is now one of USUBC’s best assets that Morgan left: the team. We are very fortunate to have them.

Brian Bonner: I always wanted to join all the business associations, particularly USUBC, because your members would be the first ones to talk about problems. They will bring up the problems that they’re having, and we could get a real understanding of the economy. And if there were no complaints, then there were no problems. Everybody was making money.

Iryna Paliashvili: I don’t think there is any country in the world where there are no problems and everybody’s happy, definitely not.

How will the USUBC’s values change after Morgan’s death?

Brian Bonner: But we have to come out of a deep hole because we still lost 25% of our economy after the big war. I just want to get a sense if you know because everybody’s got to change, and Morgan’s spirit will guide you, but it will be you guys that have to decide.

I learned a lot from watching Morgan’s family funeral. I learned why he loved Ukraine; it reminded him of Kansas. Ukraine, no matter what, is an agricultural powerhouse. It’s just such fertile ground. And I know he wanted to see it make even more progress in productivity and in refining products, value-added.

I learned from the family he was a huge collector of everything. I knew that art and promoting Holodomor art to preserve history was big for him. Will the USUBC continue with some of the same priorities, cultural events, his sectoral priorities, or how do you see differences, if you see any?

Iryna Paliashvili: Maybe the only difference is that we are not collectors. So probably we will not be devoting a lot of energy to collecting. But you are right. Morgan’s priorities were correct priorities for USUBC. Every organization, every trade association, and every member of the trade association has social responsibility.

And Morgan took that extremely seriously. He was a supporter of Ukrainian culture and Ukraine’s education. So we will continue this, and our members individually and we as the organization, definitely this will be a very big part of our activities. So there is no question about it. But what I want to add also is that for Morgan, Ukraine gradually became his life and his passion.

Same as USUBC. When he started at USUBC, he was initially just there to help save the organization, reorganize, and reboot it. Then gradually it became his life and passion. The same is true about Ukraine. I’m from Georgia originally. I came here to study law and then I stayed here. I married a Ukrainian. So it also became part of my life, my second home.

But Morgan always told me, you and I are Ukrainians by choice. So Morgan was Ukrainian by choice. He was a great patriot of the United States, but he was also a great patriot of Ukraine. And he never shied away from giving tough love. He was a straight shooter. When you said previously that Morgan sometimes was diplomatic, sometimes was not, I don’t think he was diplomatic very often. He was a straight shooter.

But it is very important that business speaks about the issues that will improve the country and the investment regime because the country needs investment. So if nobody tells the government, if nobody tells the country what needs to be done for business to come in and prosper here, they won’t know.

There is no place for diplomatic language here. Business is very clear and different trade associations are saying the same thing. We are producing policy papers, writing letters, and are involved in advocacy on behalf of our membership. And that’s a very important job because if we don’t do that, nothing will improve. That’s something that Morgan has been doing very forcefully. USUBC will continue.

Eric Luhmann: We’re very fortunate on the cultural side that Morgan anointed and Iryna gracefully accepted many years ago to be the chair of the USUBC Cultural Committee. I don’t know that we ever formally established that committee, but Irina was the chair, and she worked very closely with Morgan on all the different events we’ve sponsored over the years.

Again, like she said, we’re probably not going to continue the collection process that Morgan had. Watching the funeral service, you saw that it goes back to very early days. His family is learning a lot about what he collected. We’re in contact with the family regularly.

We want to work with them on the Holodomor collection to create a legacy for that collection in Ukraine so that long after I’m gone, people will still remember Morgan Williams and the work he did to put together that collection so that it’s available to the population. The family has asked us to let everyone know how much they appreciate all the warm thoughts, prayers, comments, and tributes they’ve received over the last month in honor of Morgan. So I wanted to make sure that was included today.

Brian Bonner: That reminds me, there was a memorial in California with family and friends, but a lot of his family and friends are here, not in blood relations, but many of us consider him part of our family. Will you have a memorial?

Iryna Paliashvili: Absolutely. We are planning several events dedicated to Morgan’s memory, celebrating his life and achievements. These events will be both in Kyiv and Washington, D.C. Right now, we are thinking through and talking to the family, his friends, and our members about the format of these events.

We have some great ideas, but we plan to hold them mostly in the fall, like September or October, because right now it is the middle of July, and people are mostly on vacation. We also want these events to be very well prepared. So definitely, there will be tributes paid to Morgan.

Most of our events open with reading the joint statement of USUBC and the family about Morgan. We try to pay tribute to him every time there is an event, but there will be separate dedicated events to Morgan’s life.

Brian Bonner: Eric, can the community count on the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council to continue with tough love and, despite being fractured by a full-scale war, have events that bring the community together, both here and in Washington, D.C.? And to tell it straight to not only the business community but to politicians.

Eric Luhmann: Absolutely. One thing that we’re doing to serve our members and the business community better is, as Iryna is in Kyiv right now, actually looking at some office space. USUBC wants to have a more permanent establishment in Kyiv.

Prior to COVID, we were using facilities at SigmaBleyzer for many of our events, hosting stuff around the city in different hotels and different members’ offices. We made a decision recently, and Morgan was part of those initial discussions. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to wrap things up before his passing.

We’re looking at office facilities in the center of town that would allow us not only to house the associates of USUBC, the team members that we have, but also to get back to having those in-person events on a regular basis. We understand these are very important to the business community and our stakeholders, like the U.S. Embassy and the ministries around the Ukrainian government, allowing people to come in and spend time together.

Not all of it was the formal sessions that were important, but the receptions afterward where people could mingle and discuss their particular issues, whether opportunities or challenges in Ukraine. We will continue to do that. As for being frank, I’m more or less at the end of my career, so I don’t have much to protect.

I will try to make sure everyone understands the raw version of what U.S. business sees in the market. I think we’ve continued to do that even in the last month. We’ve had events at the Berlin event, and people in France at different events in the defense sector.

And we want to let everybody know that we can only get to B if we make sure that A is set up properly. That requires an investment climate. Some of this stuff is like standard lingo that people say, but it really doesn’t always hit really hard. But the investment climate needs to be friendly. Ukraine is competing for every investment dollar and every trade dollar. And those dollars are much easier to spend or to realize in countries that aren’t at war.

Ukraine needs to ensure that there is an investment climate and a regulatory environment and rule of law that can be depended upon to get companies to come into the market. We need to press and continue to press this with the Ukrainian government, the international investment community, and the IFIs that are working.

Brian, if I could just say one thing about the war risk, which will help with the war insurance risk. I started my career with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, advocating and promoting finance and political risk insurance around the world for OPIC. We have the DFC today, U.S. Development Finance Corporation, which is the new name for OPIC.

We have MIGA that offers those insurances. But they have their own limits on how much concentration of insurance they can have in any one particular country or region. What needs to happen is that the international public community, the governments around the world need to let the Russians know that we’re going to offer this war insurance.

Any payments that we make, Russia is going to pay for. We’re going to insure these companies against war risk, and any payouts we have to make over the next 20 years will be covered by the Russian Federation.

Brian Bonner: That’s good to hear. Russia has to pay.

Iryna Paliashvili: What Eric is talking about, those are insurance compensations that they will have to pay.

Brian Bonner: These events, and I’ve been to countless, is Michael Bleyzer still involved in the organization?

Eric Luhmann: Yeah, well, he’s not. Michael told me recently that he has so many hats on his head right now that he couldn’t jump into USUBC, but he’s an ardent supporter of USUBC. He’s been in contact with the family because of his relationship with Morgan.

He’s not on the executive committee today, but his company is an active, proud member of USUBC. We appreciate all the support he’s given USUBC over the years, and we’re quite sure we’ll continue to have a good active relationship with him.

Brian Bonner: Yes, I knew he and Morgan were very close, and they were both very prescient. Even before the war in 2014, they knew what was coming from Russia and openly talked about whether Ukraine would be prepared. I found that very interesting from these two guys. And Michael Bleyzer is one of the major investors in Ukraine.

The offices in Mandarin Plaza, SigmaBleyzer, I can’t count how many events I went to there. They were so valuable in terms of bringing the community together, all the different players. I’m happy to see that continue.

Closing remarks

Brian Bonner: There is probably a lot more to say, but we’ll wait for the memorial. If you have any final thoughts, now’s the time.

Iryna Paliashvili: I just want to thank you, Brian, for having us here at this moment. It’s a critical moment when the organization loses its longtime leader, especially a leader of the caliber of Morgan Williams. But I think it’s important for us to be out there and let the world know that the organization continues, that we are moving forward, that Morgan’s legacy lives on, and that all the best things USUBC was known for will continue. We hope USUBC, after our victory in the war, will flourish together with Ukraine.

Brian Bonner: Well put. Eric?

Eric Luhmann: You know, Morgan can wrap it up for us: full speed ahead. Those were some choice words he would use all the time at our different events. We’ve used them with the family, and the family has used them themselves. Thank you for doing this testimony to Morgan’s honor today. It’s been a complete honor to participate.

With respect to USUBC, we’re going to continue to try to implement some of the founding principles he brought into the organization. We’ll change the curtains a little bit to make sure we put today’s current reality and focus on how USUBC needs to operate. But Morgan’s legacy will always be there. We appreciate supporters like you who have been so true and blue to USUBC over the years. We look forward to continuing to work with you and having another discussion, maybe a year or two down the road, to illustrate and share examples of how we’ve continued to keep USUBC relevant to trade, investment, and investment climate issues in Ukraine. So full speed ahead.

Brian Bonner: I’m glad you two aren’t going away, neither is USUBC, neither is Ukraine and neither am I. Morgan had a lot of catchphrases.

Iryna Paliashvili: Morganisms we call them.

Brian Bonner: Morganisms, yes. And he had charisma. And his daughter at the service said that if he liked you, he would tease you. He really liked me because he teased me a lot. He would be teasing me now because he would say, «Bonner, why didn’t you have me on the program when I was here? Now I’m gone, and you have a program. You’re not helping me at all.» But that was just Morgan. He would find something. I was a Democrat. He was a Republican. He would tease me about that. Whatever it was—Minnesota, Kansas, anything he could.

We’ll stay in touch and look forward to the memorial because he has a lot of people who love him. Morgan, we love you, and we will see you again down the road. Thank you for everything you did for all of us, for Ukraine, and for America. As you can see, this is a person very close to me, not just for personal reasons but for what he did for this country. I think people should know about that, those who don’t.