by Jaemyung Lee | January 12, 2021
Jaemyung Lee focuses on enterprise development for vulnerable groups, responsible business models, and partnerships with the private sector. Before joining The Asia Foundation, Lee participated in multiple projects related to business for social impact in Korea, Vietnam, and Panama as a research associate at Hanyang University. He has also played numerous leadership roles in the Korean social innovation landscape including Social Enterprise Network and Hanyang University’s Social Innovation Committee. Lee received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Social Innovation from Hanyang University, Korea.
by Kyoungsun Lee | January 12, 2021
Kyoungsun Lee manages international relations and Asian development cooperation programs for the Foundation’s Korea office. She coordinates South-South Cooperation programs among emerging Asian donors and U.S.-Korea cooperation programs for peace on the Korean Peninsula. She also serves as secretary to the Board of Directors of the Friends of The Asia Foundation.
by Harry K. Thomas Jr. | December 18, 2020
Ambassador Harry K. Thomas Jr. is a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a Senior Strategic Engagement Leader at Special Operations Command. He served as ambassador to Zimbabwe (2016-2018), the Philippines (2010-2013) and Bangladesh (2003-2005). He retired in March 2018 with the rank of Career Minister after more than three decades in the Foreign Service. Ambassador Thomas also served as Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Secretary Rice, Director General of the Foreign Service, Director for South Asia at the National Security Council and Director of the Operations Center.
by Mary Ann Peters | December 18, 2020
Ambassador Mary Ann Peters was the CEO of The Carter Center founded by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, from September 2014 until her retirement in June 2020. Prior to joining the center, Peters served as provost at the U.S. Naval War College and was dean of academics at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. A career diplomat for 30 years, Peters served as U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, leading the Embassy response to the September 11 attack and earning a Presidential Meritorious Service Award for her work.
by Glen S. Fukushima | November 9, 2020
Glen S. Fukushima is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
From 1990 to 2012, he was a senior executive based in Asia with one European and four American multinational corporations and was elected president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. From 1985 to 1990, he served in Washington, D.C. as director for Japanese Affairs (1985-1988) and deputy assistant United States trade representative for Japan and China (1988-1990) at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President.
He has served on numerous corporate boards and government advisory councils in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Global Council of the Asia Society. His publications include The Politics of U.S.-Japan Economic Friction, awarded the 9th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize in 1993.
A U.S. citizen raised in California, Glen Fukushima was educated at Stanford University, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School. In Japan, he was educated at Keio University and the University of Tokyo, where he was a Fulbright Fellow and Japan Foundation Fellow.
by Smita Pillai | October 9, 2020
Smita Pillai is a global leader in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with an accomplished career spanning Life Sciences, Technology, Financial Services and Media. She is the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer for Regeneron, one the world’s most innovative biotechnology company, based out of New York. In her role Smita is responsible for a comprehensive DE&I strategy and implementation at the company, ensuring that equity is at the heart of the company’s mission: Science to Medicine.
Prior to joining Regeneron, Smita held Global Head and CDO roles for a variety of multinational Fortune 50 and fast growing companies like Zendesk, Dow Jones, including The Wall Street Journal, Prudential Financial and Johnson & Johnson. In her career, Smita has led groundbreaking global diversity efforts and established clear metrics for DE&I measurement that have advanced this import work across multiple organizations. She has also been a founding board member for several global employee groups and has always approached this work with a trifecta impact on talent, business and community. Her holistic approach to DE&I seeks to create a climate of inclusion and belonging where innovation can thrive.
Smita is a well-recognized global thought leader and has received several awards and recognitions like the Top 100 DEI Leaders of Influence, Leadership Excellence Award Tri-State Diversity and Leadership, NY Moves Mentor, Diversity MBA Top 100 Under 50, Economic Times, Leaders executive profile, COLOR profile, for her outstanding achievements in community, leadership and education. An accomplished public speaker, Smita has led various global forums like the Women’s Economic Summit, SOCAP, Sundance Film Festival, WSJ Women In conference, WSJ CEO Council, Latina Style, HACR, Diversity Council, COLOR magazine, W.I.N Forum NY, The Conference Board, Working Mother Media, and Diversity Best Practices, among others.
Originally from India, Smita has a master’s degree in International Business from India, and a Wharton Executive Education on Strategic Management certification. She is a Certified Diversity Professional and considers herself a true global citizen, having worked across the globe and based in Mumbai, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Florida, San Francisco and New York. She loves to spend time with her family, travel, practice yoga and run trails. Smita lives with her husband, their three children and their Rottweiler in their historic barn home in Central New Jersey.
by Sandra Kraushaar | October 6, 2020
Sandra Kraushaar is The Asia Foundation’s regional representative in the Pacific Islands, based in Suva, Fiji. She has over 25 years of professional experience working on gender, human rights, political economy, geopolitics, and governance. She leads a dynamic and growing team in the Pacific Islands, working with civil society, government, the private sector, regional bodies, and the international development and diplomatic community, supporting Pacific solutions to Pacific challenges.
Sandra has previously served as program and policy lead on Women, Peace, and Security agenda for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), multilateral gender work on several international platforms including the UN Human Rights Council, United National General Assembly committee work, ASEAN, and G20, as well as partnerships with UN Women, and the Commission on the Status of Women. Prior to this, she provided specialist guidance and training on political economy analysis, adaptive management, and developmental leadership as a governance adviser with DFAT’s Governance and Fragility Branch. She has also led DFAT’s Fragility and Conflict section’s engagement with research on measuring peace in the Pacific and politically informed policy and program design.
From 2013-2015, she served as Suva-based regional manager of the AusAID/DFAT-funded Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development program, a ten-year $320 million initiative across the Pacific Islands region. She also served as AusAID’s Suva-based regional manager of the Pacific Leadership program, with a focus on women’s leadership roles and potential in politics, business, and communities; designing comprehensive program strategies; and advancing new approaches to support women’s leadership and agency throughout the region.
Education: Sandra has a master’s degree in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from The Australian National University and a bachelor’s degree with honors in Politics, Peace, and Human Geography from the University of New England.
by Mark McDowell | September 8, 2020
Mark McDowell is country representative for The Asia Foundation, Myanmar. A career diplomat, McDowell has spent the last decade working on Myanmar, first as Canada’s Ambassador in Yangon from 2013 to 2016 and later as country director of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). He joined The Asia Foundation in 2020.
In his two decades with the Canadian Foreign Service, he also served as counselor for Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Canada in Beijing; counselor for Political and Economic Affairs, Embassy of Canada in Bangkok; deputy director for Aboriginal and Circumpolar Affairs, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, Global Issues Bureau; director for Political and Public Affairs, Canada Trade Office in Taipei, and as delegate to the UN General Assembly for the Canadian Mission to the UN. He has been a visiting scholar at the Kennedy School’s Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and at Thailand’s Institute for Security and International Studies.
Education: In addition to doctoral studies in Political Science with a focus on environmental policy in Indonesia, McDowell holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in East Asian Studies and a bachelor’s degree in History and Philosophy, both from the University of Toronto.
by Don Pathan | September 1, 2020
Don Pathan is a senior program officer for Regional Security Cooperation at The Asia Foundation, Thailand, with over 20 years of professional experience working in international relations, transnational crime, drugs and insurgencies in Southeast Asia, and separatist movements in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south. He joined the Foundation in March 2019. Pathan spent the past two decades covering diplomacy, international relations, transnational crime, and insurgency in Southeast Asia as a consultant for various international organizations and wrote for a wide range of publications and media outlets.
Pathan briefs diplomats, international think tanks, and others on security matters and peace-building initiatives on a regular basis. He co-authored Confronting Ghosts: Thailand’s Shapeless Southern Insurgency with Dr. Joseph Liow (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore) and wrote a chapter in the Trouble in the Triangle: Opium and Conflict in Burma in which he examined the nexus between the United Wa State Army, the Thai government, and the military regime of Myanmar. He also co-authored Borders of/on the mind, borders in the jungle: Islamic insurgency and ethno-religious irredentism in southern Thailand with Sciences-Po’s Prof. David Camroux in Promoting Conflict or Peace through Identity, Ashgate Publishing. Pathan is one of the founder of Patani Forum, a civil society organization dedicated to critical discussion on the nature of the conflict in southern Thailand. Pathan is a member of the SEAN-CSO standing committee since June 2016 and assisted Deakin University, Australia, in guiding this initiative.
Education: Pathan graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies.
by Priscilla Baek | August 26, 2020
Priscilla is Asia Pacific lead for the International Government Affairs team at Google. Previously, she led the commerce policy team at Facebook, where she developed and launched policies for all commerce and payments products across the Facebook family of apps, and Uber, where she led regulatory and advocacy efforts in Asia to develop innovative frameworks for ridesharing. She has also helped drive key programs in the U.S. government as a senior investment specialist at SelectUSA, where she helped facilitate billions of dollars in job-creating foreign direct investment into the United States from Asia, and advisor at the U.S. Department of Treasury, where she supported interagency implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act. As policy manager for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, she managed a 3000-member coalition for passage of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement that was successfully passed in Congress. Priscilla holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and Spanish from Duke University and a master’s degree in Korean Studies from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
