The Asia Foundation Announces New Trustees

San Francisco, November 9, 2017 — The Asia Foundation, a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia, announces the election of four new members to its Board of Trustees at its September 25, 2017 meeting: Amb. Robert O. Blake, Jr., Dr. Michael J. Green, Amb. Mark W. Lippert, and Ms. Ruby Shang.

Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr. joined The Asia Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017. He is currently senior director at McLarty Associates and leads the India and South Asia practice. Amb. Blake served for 31 years in the State Department in a wide range of leadership positions. In 2009, he was nominated by President Obama to be assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, serving from 2009-2013, for which he was awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award. From 2006-2009, he served concurrently as United States ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Prior to that, he served as deputy chief of mission (DCM) in India from 2003-2006, where he was named the worldwide DCM of the Year by the State Department. Most recently, from 2013-2016, he was the United States ambassador to Indonesia, where he focused on building stronger business and educational ties between the US and Indonesia, while also developing cooperation to help Indonesia reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Amb. Blake has held a wide variety of key State Department positions as well, including executive assistant to the under secretary for Political Affairs from 2001-2003, deputy executive secretary for the Department of State from 2000-2001, and senior desk officer responsible for economic and political relations with Turkey from 1998-2000. He has also served in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Nigeria. He is currently chairman of the board of the US-Indonesia Society, and a board member of the Bhutan Foundation. Amb. Blake holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.

Dr. Michael J. Green joined The Asia Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017. He is senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and chair in modern and contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He served on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2001 through 2005, first as director for Asian affairs with responsibility for Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and then as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asia, with responsibility for East Asia and South Asia. Before joining the NSC staff, he was a senior fellow for East Asian security at the Council on Foreign Relations, director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center and the Foreign Policy Institute and an assistant professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, and senior adviser on Asia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also worked in Japan on the staff of a member of the National Diet. Dr. Green is a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a distinguished scholar at the Asia Pacific Institute in Tokyo. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, the America Australia Leadership Dialogue, the advisory boards of Radio Free Asia, Center for a New American Security, and the editorial boards of the Washington Quarterly and the Journal of Unification Studies in Korea. He also serves as a trustee at The Asia Foundation, senior adviser at the Asia Group, and as an associate of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Dr. Green has authored numerous books and articles on East Asian security, including most recently, By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from SAIS and did additional graduate and postgraduate research at Tokyo University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his bachelor’s degree in History from Kenyon College with highest honors. He holds a black belt in Iaido (sword) and has won international prizes on the great highland bagpipe.

Ambassador Mark W. Lippert joined The Asia Foundations Board of Trustees in 2017. He is currently vice president of Boeing International, based in Washington, D.C. where he handles a global portfolio that cuts across commercial, defense and services issues. An Asia expert with long experience at senior positions in the United States Government, Amb. Lippert served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and chief of staff and deputy assistant to the President at the National Security Council. Prior to serving in the Executive Branch, Amb. Lippert worked in the United States Senate for 10 years including serving as then-Senator Obama’s representative to the Foreign Relations Committee, a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee working for Senator Patrick J. Leahy on the State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee, and as a foreign and defense policy advisor to Senator Tom Daschle. Amb. Lippert also served as an intelligence officer in the United States Navy, with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas locations supporting Naval Special Warfare (SEAL Teams). His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Basic Parachutist Badge. He is also the recipient of the Department of Defense’s Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award. Amb. Lippert graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and holds a master’s degree in International Policy Studies from the same institution. He studied Mandarin Chinese at Beijing University and Korean language at the Foreign Service Institute and Post Language Program.

Ms. Ruby Shang joined The Asia Foundation Board of Trustees in 2017. Ms. Shang was country director, Asia director, and advisor at the Clinton Foundation from 2003 to 2015, where she established the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam. She first implemented CHAI in China as country director and assisted the Chinese Ministry of Health to successfully implement a national Care & Treatment program for HIV/AIDS, focusing in Yunnan province and the Xinjiang Special Autonomous Region. In 2008, she assumed additional responsibility for the Clinton Climate Initiative in China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and throughout Southeast Asia, implementing sustainable energy efficiency programs for building retrofit and solid waste with eleven city governments, as well as forestry programs with the national Forestry Ministries in Cambodia and Indonesia. In 2011 she became the Asia director for the Clinton Climate Initiative. In September 2014, she assumed the role of senior advisor to the overall foundation and left the Clinton Foundation in October of 2015. Previously, Ms. Shang performed with The Paul Taylor Dance Company and served as a member of the dance faculties of The Juilliard School, and the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She was Chair of the Dance Panel for the New York State Council for the Arts, and a member of the Board of Governors for the New York Foundation for the Arts. As a choreographer, Ms. Shang was the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council of the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, the Japan-US Friendship Commission, a Fulbright Hayes Cultural Award, among others. Ms. Shang was born in Tokyo, attended the American School in Japan, and graduated from Brown University. She served as a member of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Finance Committee for her 2016 Presidential campaign and as a member of Brown University President’s Leadership Council for 14 years. Additional board roles include Impact Investment Exchange Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and The Klosters Forum. She chairs the board of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance and resides in Singapore.

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