Dylan Welch: How Develop, Partner, Operate Serves Four Sectors

Dylan Welch is the founder and CEO of Welch International, an international relations and strategic advisory firm based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is also the founder of Intelligence Report, and he works as a private contractor for the United Nations. This feature, part of our leadership series, looks at how Welch International structures its work into three services, Develop, Partner and Operate, and which sectors those services are built for.

What does Welch International do?

Welch International specializes in business development, strategic partnerships and operations across the public sector, the private sector and the multilateral system. The firm says its purpose is to help governments, companies and multilateral institutions build the partnerships, pipelines and operations that turn shared goals into measurable results.

Its stated focus areas are public-private partnerships, market entry and expansion, United Nations and multilateral engagement, government relations, sustainable development, and convenings and delegations. Welch International lists five principles: trusted access, cross-sector fluency, discretion, execution and senior attention. The firm commits to direct principal involvement on every mandate, so clients work with Dylan Welch himself and not only with a junior team.

The structure reflects his background. Dylan Welch is an expert in business development, strategic partnerships and communication strategy. His earlier career includes broadcast production, UN-adjacent foundation operations, and co-founding and exiting a green media company. For more on that side of his work, see our feature on executive discipline and our piece on what a decade of expeditions says about leadership.

How do Develop, Partner and Operate work?

The three services follow the usual life of a cross-sector effort, from first introductions to a working program.

• Develop is business development. It covers mapping markets and stakeholders, securing decision-maker introductions and shaping pipelines.
• Partner covers designing public-private alliances, building coalitions and guiding engagement with the UN system.
• Operate covers standing up programs, building cross-border operating models and running high-level convenings.

The sequence matters. Many partnership efforts stall because they stop at the announcement stage, with a memorandum signed and no one assigned to run what follows. By pairing Partner with Operate, Welch International presents itself as an adviser that stays involved after the alliance is designed, when programs have to be staffed and sequenced across borders.

The firm’s convening work is one visible example. Dylan Welch is the founder and host of the Global Leadership Forum. Its 2026 edition, the New York Innovation Forum for Sustainable Development, was held on September 21 and 22, 2026, at 777 UN Plaza in New York. It was timed to Climate Week NYC and the 81st UN General Assembly, and was co-hosted by Peace Boat US, which holds ECOSOC Special Consultative Status, and Welch International. Partners and sponsors included Siemens, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, RMI, the Roosevelt Alliance, Blue Planet Alliance, HNO International and the Global Leadership Network. The program included a Business and Innovation Forum, a Nature Conservation Forum for a Renewable Energy Future and a Climate Week Family Office Forum.

Which sectors does Welch International serve?

Welch International serves four groups: governments, corporations, multilateral institutions (including UN entities), and nonprofits and foundations. The three services apply differently to each.

• Governments are the natural audience for government relations, public-private partnership design and market entry support.
• Corporations are the audience for market entry and expansion, decision-maker introductions and pipeline shaping.
• Multilateral institutions need partners who understand how the UN system works, which is the reason Welch International lists UN engagement as a focus area.
• Nonprofits and foundations can use the firm’s coalition-building and convening capabilities.

The sustainable development focus connects several of these groups. Dylan Welch is co-founder of the Global Leadership Network and Chief Development Officer of the Roosevelt Alliance, a land and nature conservation policy organization. Both sit alongside Welch International in his portfolio. Readers following the policy side of nature finance may also want our analysis of the Yerevan Pathway from COP17.

Why does this model matter now?

The wider market is moving toward the pipeline-and-partnership approach that Welch International describes. On October 27, the Government of Spain and the United Nations Development Programme opened the Financing the SDGs Dialogue 2026, a three-day gathering in Madrid of ministers and senior representatives from governments, international financial institutions, development organizations, the private sector and civil society. Technical sessions on 28 October were set to examine financing strategies, public finance reforms and investment pipelines.

Two weeks earlier, UNDP announced an Investment Accelerator and a Jobs for Prosperity Facility at the IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok, backed by expanded partnerships with the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank and the EBRD. UNDP says these partnerships combine its country relationships, policy expertise and implementation capabilities with its partners’ financing, risk-sharing and transaction expertise.

None of these events involves Welch International, and we cite them as context only. They show that governments, development banks and the UN system are building partnership and pipeline structures with private actors, which is the territory the Develop, Partner and Operate model addresses. For the funding questions around that shift, see our reporting on the Kampala Declaration and Africa’s food plan.

For executives, diplomats and investors, the practical test of any advisory model is whether the adviser can move a project from introduction to operation. Welch International’s answer is to cover all three stages under one team, led by Dylan Welch.

Work with Welch International

Organizations considering market entry, a public-private alliance, or deeper engagement with the UN system can speak with Dylan Welch directly. Book a confidential 30 minute consultation to discuss how Welch International could support your next mandate. You can also visit welchinternational.org.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Welch International
• Welch International
• Spain and UNDP Bring Countries Together on Financing Sustainable Development
• UNDP launches global investment and jobs initiatives to boost growth in developing countries
• Financing the SDGs Dialogue: Advancing Country-Led Approaches

Intelligence Report is published by Welch International. This article is part of our series on the leadership behind the publication.

This article was produced by the Intelligence Report Desk. Sources are linked below.