Amb. Nguyen Quoc Cuong joins McLarty’s Board of Counselors
November 2, 2020
We are pleased to welcome to McLarty’s Board of Counselors Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Vietnam’s former ambassador to the United States and later Japan.
Our Board helps ensure that we and our clients have access to the very best insights from respected statesmen and women who have served their governments at senior levels in key markets around the world.
Ambassador Cuong is one of Vietnam’s most distinguished diplomats. He served as Vietnam’s Ambassador to the US from 2011 to 2014, where he played a key role in upgrading US-Vietnam relations to a Comprehensive Partnership. He served as Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2008, and again in 2015 and 2018, where he oversaw Vietnam’s relations with Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ambassador Cuong received his MA degree in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1997.
Amb. Cuong joins Amb. David Shear, former US ambassador to Vietnam, and Tu Giang, a former longtime executive at the US Embassy in Hanoi, to further strengthen our Vietnam capabilities in Hanoi and Washington.
McLarty Associates has been advising clients in Southeast Asia for over ten years, and our team brings decades of experience in the region.
Our Southeast Asia team is led by former US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake, Jr. and includes former US Ambassadors to the Philippines John D. Negroponte and Thomas C. Hubbard; former US Ambassador to Thailand William H. Itoh; former US Ambassador to Vietnam David B. Shear; and former US Ambassador to Malaysia Christopher LaFleur. McLarty Asia’s Singapore office is led by Steven Okun, supported by our people on the ground in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia
OUR SOUTHEAST ASIA TEAM
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Amb. John D. Negroponte, our vice chairman, was Deputy Secretary of State, US Ambassador to the United Nations, and US Ambassador to the Philippines. - Amb. Robert O. Blake Jr. leads our Southeast Asia practice. He served as US Ambassador to Indonesia from 2013-2016 and is also co-chair of the Board of Trustees at the US-Indonesia Society (USINDO).
- Amb. Thomas Hubbard was US Ambassador to the Philippines, Charge d’Affairs in Malaysia, a presidential envoy to Burma, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia, and a founder of the US-Philippines Society.
- Amb. David B. Shear served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs from 2014 to 2016 after serving as the US Ambassador to Vietnam.
- Amb. Christopher LaFleur served as US Ambassador to Malaysia.
- Steven Okun leads MA’s Singapore office and was KKR’s first Director of Asia Public Affairs and led UPS Asia’s public affairs practice from 2003 until 2010.
- Tami Overby most recently led the US Chamber of Commerce’s Asia program, where she successfully expanded the Chamber’s ASEAN and Australia/New Zealand efforts by leading the Chamber’s Trans-Pacific Partnership efforts for over 8 years.
- Angeline Thangaperakasam, based in Kuala Lumpur, previously was a foreign service officer in the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Amb. William H. Itoh served as US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand.
- Roberto M. Romulo, based in Manila, served as The Philippines’ Secretary of Foreign Affairs and was Senior Advisor on international competitiveness to President Gloria Arroyo.
- Amb. Nguyen Quoc Cuong, based in Hanoi, served as Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Vietnam’s Ambassador to the US and Japan.
- Tu Giang, based in Hanoi, most recently served as the senior protocol assistant in the Executive Office at the US Embassy in Vietnam.
- Suree Chooratchareon, based in Bangkok, served as the senior protocol specialist at the Executive Office in the US Embassy in Bangkok for the last 30 years and has worked closely with several US Ambassadors to Thailand.
- Kanchana Aksorn-Aree, based in Bangkok, previously served as an economic specialist at the US Embassy in Bangkok for the last 20 years.
- Alden Hartopo, a native of Jakarta and a Bahasa speaker, previously held positions at a global consultancy, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and The Jakarta Globe.
