EWC Board Elects New Chairman

International development economist and business executive Puongpun Sananikone is an alumnus and longtime supporter of the Center

HONOLULU (July 11) – Members of the East-West Center’s Board of Governors have elected international development economist Puongpun Sananikone to serve as the board’s new chairman. At a meeting today, the board named Sananikone to succeed Roland Lagareta, who became the board’s vice-chairman.

In addition, the board reappointed member Il SaKong, a former South Korea minister of finance and currently a leading economic advisor to President Lee Myung-bak, to a third term on the board. SaKong’s new term will extend until October 2011.

Originally from Laos, new board Chairman Sananikone was an East-West Center participant as an economics student in the mid-1960s, soon after the Center was established, and he credits the Center’s cross-cultural environment with shaping both his personal life and his career as an international development economist and business executive who has worked on every continent.

“Becoming an East-West Center grantee forever altered the course of my life,” Sananikone said. “Not only did I meet and marry my wife Thanh-Lo at the Center, but I also began building the basis of a life and career that have been inextricably intertwined with the educational and cross-cultural learning opportunities I had while I was there.”

Sananikone is the first East-West Center alumnus to be elected chairman.  Larry Foster, president of the Center’s alumni association, said that the alumni “are of course delighted and proud at having our first fellow alumnus to serve as chairman of the Board of Governors, but we also know that Puongpun was selected on the basis of the many other strengths he brings to the position.” Among those strengths, Foster said, is Sananikone’s “extraordinary network of contacts throughout the region, which we expect will bring great benefit to the Center.”

Fluent in six languages, Sananikone has held a variety of high-profile professional business positions in various countries, including Operations Officer for the Asian Development Bank, Chief Economist and Director of Asian Operations for the engineering and development firm Louis Berger International; and Executive Vice President of Hawaiian Agronomics International. Since 1987, he has headed his own Honolulu-based consulting firm, Pacific Management Resources, or PacMar, Inc., which provides a broad range of economic and technical advisory services to business ventures throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Hawai‘i and a master’s in economics from the University of Colorado, and in 2003 he received the University of Hawai‘i’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Sananikone said he believes the elements of the East-West Center community are currently working very well together, and his primary goal as chair will be to help build the Center’s long-term financial stability.

“The Center is an outstanding example of a public-private partnership,” he said. “Congressional funding has been remarkably reliable over the years, but we have a relatively small endowment, so I believe it is important to diversify and expand our funding base.”

To that end, Sananikone said, he is looking forward to working with Center President Charles E. Morrison and his staff, along with “the private sector and the Center’s many alumni and friends around the world to ensure long-term stability through creative fundraising.”

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The EAST-WEST CENTER is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations and the governments of the region.

The EWC Board of Governors consists of 18 members, including five appointed by the governor of Hawai‘i, five appointed by the U.S. secretary of state, five members from Asia and the Pacific Islands who are elected by the full board, and three ex-officio members who include the governor of Hawai‘i, the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, and the president of the University of Hawai‘i.