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It sounds like the setup for a joke.

A Swiss consultant, living in Steamboat Springs, was recently hired by the European Union, based in Brussels, Belgium, through a consulting firm in Ireland for a business development mission in Bhutan while answering to the EU's office in Dehi, India.

While a complicated way to get a job, Henri Stetter is used to complex jobs. He will leave for his latest job for the United Nations in the country of Georgia, where he will help a recently war-torn region build a more efficient gas and oil company.

Stetter has worked with the Georgian Oil and Gas Company twice before, for three weeks at a time, and said the experience has been rewarding.

"They are the loveliest, most hospitable people," he said, complimenting their knowledge of arts and culture.

The U.N. Development Program has allocated $5 million for the project to help the company shake off its Soviet-style leadership that has resulted in poor management.

Now Stetter's work takes on new meaning as the company reports several of its pipelines were damaged in the recent conflict with Russia.

Because all of the country's oil and gas flows through the company's pipes, Stetter hopes the business will be fully functional by winter.

"Before the (war), it was going to be challenging from a bureaucratic way," he said. "It's more important now because winter is coming soon. If they have to cut the pipeline or cut the flow again, it could have a big impact and the people will suffer."

Stetter will work as a business consultant with a team of eight local development program workers to restructure the oil and gas company, which is the largest private company in the country.

The difficulties will be magnified by political upheaval, he said, after Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops to the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia responded with force and bombings of Georgian towns.

A ceasefire has been declared, but Stetter said several top officials in the country may lose their positions, perhaps requiring the company to go through bureaucratic hoops again.

Stetter also is soliciting donations from local doctors and the Yampa Valley Medical Center to give to refugees who have fled from the violence in South Ossetia. Christine McKelvie, spokeswoman for the hospital, said representatives from the hospital have been in contact with Stetter and are determining what to send.

Swiss of all trades

Stetter does not confine himself to oil and gas business, though, and works with businesses of all kinds. In October he plans to travel to Fiji, where the Australian government is trying to improve the textile and manufacturing industry.

Stetter retired to Steamboat eight years ago, but his travels often take him out of the country - he counts about 15 projects that he has worked on since his retirement.

His work in Bhutan was a poverty-eradication project to encourage farmers to harvest herbs that grow only in the high altitudes of the Himalaya Mountains where the country is located. Bhutan is famous for using the "gross national happiness" term to lead the country.

"They know the meaning of the word stress but it baffles them why any human being would feel the way the dictionary defines the feeling," he said.

Stetter said his world travels began when he was 19 and left home for two weeks. Since that time, he has lived in Asia for more than 20 years and traveled all across the world, and he said he doesn't plan to stop any time soon.

"It's really interesting seeing what opportunities the world has to offer," he said.