Obituaries

Herbert L. CooperInternational Business Consultant

Herbert L. Cooper, 54, founder of an organization that encouraged the American private sector to support international arts and cultural programs, International Business Through Arts & Culture, died June 2 at his hotel in Seoul after a heart attack. Mr. Cooper, a 2004 heart transplant recipient, was traveling on business.

Herbert Llewellyn Cooper was born in New York and moved to Washington in 1972 to attend Antioch University, where he received an undergraduate degree in communications and marketing in 1976.

Shortly afterward, he founded North American Communications, which published directories for American companies doing business in Africa, the Caribbean Basin, Mexico, South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

From 1999 to 2004, he was a project manager for the A. Phillip Randolph Educational Fund. Among other responsibilities, he was the liaison to the AFL-CIO's Center for Working Capital in a joint effort to identify, recruit and provide educational services to African-American pension fund trustees.

He also developed incentive packages to encourage highway construction contractors to train and employ underserved populations.

He founded International Business Through Arts & Culture, known as IBAC, in 2005.

He also worked as a senior consultant to Diversified Search Ray & Berndston, an executive search firm where he specialized in finding minority executive candidates.

His marriage to Janet Cooper ended in divorce.

Survivors include two brothers and a sister.

-- Joe Holley