Michael R. DiGregorio
Country Representative, Vietnam
Dr. Michael R. DiGregorio has directed the Foundation’s work in Vietnam since 2014, during which time he has led new projects and programs to address blockchain supply chain traceability, digital finance for rural and remote farmers and small enterprise owners, digital applications for the “gig” economy, trade facilitation, business-related disaster risk, city level disaster resilience, and energy-related regulations and planning.
Michael earned a PhD in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2001 with a dissertation on the cultural economy of industrializing craft villages in the Red River Delta. His MA in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii was published in 1994 as “Urban Harvest: Recycling as a Peasant Industry in Northern Vietnam”. Dr. DiGregorio also holds an MA in Development Economics from Ohio University and has served as an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawaii and a teaching fellow at Harvard University’s Department of East Asian History.
Michael has lived in Vietnam for 32 years . He is a recipient of the Bui Xuan Phai Prize, a community award offered to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the city of Hanoi. He is currently a steering committee member of the Vietnam Business Forum’s Power and Energy Working Group and Environment Working Group. He is also a long-standing member of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association.