Thang D. Nguyen is a Jakarta-based op-ed columnist, editor, and public communications consultant. A prolific and provocative writer, Thang pens frequently on Indonesian and Asian affairs for international and major Asian newspapers, including The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Australian, The International Herald Tribune, The Jakarta Post, The Nation, The New Straits Times, The South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, and Today. His writing can be viewed at http://thangthecolumnist.blogspot.com

Thang has been a speaker at various international forums and published several books, including Indonesia Matters: Diversity, Unity, and Stability in Fragile Times (Times Editions, 2003) and The Malaysian Journey: Progress in Diversity (Times Editions, 2004); and The Indonesian Dream: Unity, Diversity, and Democracy in Times of Distrust (Marshall Cavendish Academic, 2004). He is also the Program Director of the United in Diversity Forum (www.unitedindiversity.org). He wrote and actualized the program of the Forum’s summit of 400 participants in Bali, in December 2003. Currently, he works with his colleagues on the Forum’s relief efforts, publications, and education programs. His previous professional experience also includes a six-month international image-building campaign for the Government of Indonesia, as commissioned to APCO, an international communications firm. In this project, he was tasked with promoting a better, more perceptive understanding of Indonesia abroad. He designed, prepared, and sent three goodwill delegations composed of dignitaries to speak on post-Suharto Indonesia and its developments and progress in Australia, and Europe. Among other responsibilities, Thang wrote and placed Op-Eds about Indonesia in major international and regional media. He was, for three years, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was a Regional Manager for Asia. While at the WEF, Thang was in charge of the Business Interaction Groups (BIGs), a series of informal, private gatherings of global business leaders and public figures from developing countries at the Annual Meeting in Davos, the foremost global gathering of 2000 participants from business, politics and civil society. He was responsible for its Indonesian and Southeast Asian affairs and managed its relations with the governments from the region. A recipient of numerous awards, Thang holds an AA in Liberal Arts (cum laude) from Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), Massachusetts, US; a BA in American Studies (magna cum laude and phi beta kappa) from Hobart College, New York, US; and an MA in International Relations and Economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, US.  Thang is a member of the US-Indonesia Society (USINDO) and the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club (JFCC).