December 2016

Syeda Adeela Bokhari (PP ’07), Chief Information Technology, Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan

Ms. Syeda Adeela Bokhari joined the Federal Board of Revenue, Government of Pakistan in 1998 where she held various positions until she was transferred to become the Director General Accreditation & Certification & International Cooperation at the National Vocational & Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) under the Prime Minister Cabinet in March 2013. NAVTTC is an apex body to regulate, facilitate and provide policy direction in vocational & technical training and Adeela was entrusted with the responsibility to establish a system of accreditation. In October 2016, she returned to her parent organization, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), to briefly serve as Chief Tax Payers Audit and since December as Chief Information Technology.

…Read an interview with Syeda Adeela Bokhari

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November 2016

Vathouniyom Douangmala (YLP ’11), Director, Tourism & Exchange ASEAN-Japan Centre, Tokyo

Vathouniyom Douangmala joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in October 1999, after graduating from the Law Faculty of the Laos National University. As a career diplomat, he served in various positions, including a three-year posting at the Embassy of Lao PDR in Paris, before joining the Young Leaders Program at GRIPS in 2010. After serving for another 5 years in Laos’ MOFA, he returned to Japan in April 2016 when he was appointed as Director of the Tourism & Exchange Division of the ASEAN-Japan Centre (AJC) in Tokyo, where he is responsible for invigorating tourism and the expansion of personal exchanges between the ASEAN countries and Japan.

…Read an interview with Vathouniyom Douangmala

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October 2016

Yang Qin, Vice Chairman (PF ’99), Customs and Trade Facilitation Commission, China National Committee, ICC

Mr. Yang Qin worked at the General Administration of Customs of PRC for more than 16 years as Senior Expert of Customs Policy & Administration and he has been the key promoter and facilitator of many China Customs modernization projects. After his successful career in the public sector, Mr. Yang Qin started his initiatives in the private sector with CC International Consulting Limited, which is now a top customs consultancy in China. In 2012, Mr. Yang Qin was one of the initiators of the “China International Trade Facilitation Forum”  which has grown out to become a national regular trade promotion platform while in 2015, he was appointed as chief expert committee member by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in the field of customs modernization and trade facilitation. Furthermore, in June 2016 Mr. Yang Qin was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Customs and Trade Facilitation Commission, China National Committee, ICC.

…Read an interview with Yang Qin

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September 2016

Ranjit Kumar (PF ’12), Additional Director, Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence, Ministry of Finance, India

Ranjit joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise) as a career bureaucrat after receiving his degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in 1995. He held several positions as tax administrator before enrolling in the Public Finance Program at GRIPS in 2011. Upon his return to India, in addition to his position as Additional Director at Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence, Ranjit became a member of the team responsible for designing the structure and draft law for the Goods and Services Tax which is to be implemented in 2017. Ranjit was conferred a Presidential Award – the highest award for Revenue Officials – on Republic Day of 2016 for his “Specially Distinguished Record of Service”.

…Read an interview with Ranjit Kumar

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August 2016

Henry Kyeremeh (PP ’09), Economic Officer, Debt Management Division, Ministry of Finance, Ghana

Henry joined the Ministry of Finance after graduating from the University of Cape Coast with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Economics in 2005. He has held several positions in the Ministry, mostly engaging in economic diplomacy and debt management. Henry was selected, from nearly 2000 candidates, for the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2016, the flagship program of US President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), launched in 2010. He participated in a 6-week program of intensive academic coursework and leadership training in the US, culminating in a Presidential Summit convened by President Obama on August 1-3, 2016.

…Read an interview with Henry Kyeremeh

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July 2016

Kimio Wada (PP ’99), Vice Mayor, Tsurugashima City, Saitama Prefecture

Kimio Wada started his career at the Saitama Prefectural Office in 1987. After spending about a decade with the prefectural government, he was selected for the masters program at GRIPS’ predecessor, the Graduate School of Policy Science, Saitama University from which he graduated in 1999. After graduating, he returned to the Prefectural Office where, among others, he was in charge of promoting decentralization as well as supporting the internationalization of Saitama Prefecture. Kimio Wada was appointed as Vice-Mayor of Tsurugashima City in April this year.

…Read an interview with Kimio Wada

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June 2016

Bounlouane Douangngeune (MA ’02; Ph.D. ’05), Director, Laos-Japan Human Resource Development Institute, Vientiane

After receiving his Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in horticultural technology from the University of Queensland, Australia in 1998, Bounlouane Douangngeune started his career in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He was awarded a 5-year JICA scholarship for undertaking a master’s and doctorate degree in International Development Studies at GRIPS, from September 2000. Upon his return to Laos, he joined the Laos-Japan Human Resource Development Institute as Deputy Director. Bounlouane was appointed Director of the Institute in February 2016.

…Read an interview with Bounlouane Douangngeune

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May 2016

April 2016

Le Minh Hung (TE ’97), Governor, State Bank of Vietnam

Le Minh Hung, 46, is officially the youngest Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) in history, after his appointment on April 9, 2016. Vietnam lawmakers approved Le Minh Hung as the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, a day after he was nominated by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Le Minh Hung is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He spent most of his career in the State Bank of Vietnam but in 2014, he was transferred to become the deputy chief of the Communist Party administration office.

…Read more about Le Minh Hung

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March 2016

Azman bin Mohd. Yusof (PP ’97), Deputy Secretary General (Strategic), Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development Malaysia

Azman bin Mohd. Yusof completed his Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Public Administration at West Texas State University, United States and started his career at the University Malaya. Later, he joined the Prime Minister’s Department as the Assistant Secretary after completing his Diploma in Public Management (Hons) at the Institut Tadbiran Awam Negara (INTAN). Since completing his Master in Public Policy (MPP) at the Graduate School of Policy Science, Saitama University, Japan, Azman served in various capacities at different government agencies before he  joined the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development as the Deputy Secretary General (Strategic) in June 2015.

…Read an interview with Azmin bin Mohd. Yusof

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February 2016

Tanavadee Khuvasanont (YLP ’09), Counsellor (Economic and Investment), Office of Economic and Investment Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo

Tanavadee received a Bachelor of Engineering from Kasetsart University and went on to study Industrial and System Engineering at Virginia Tech, USA. She joined the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) in 2006 where she worked as Investment Promotion Officer until she enrolled in the Young Leaders Program at GRIPS in October 2008. Since her graduation she has held several positions at the BOI headquarters in Bangkok before she was posted to the Office of Economic and Investment Affairs, at the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, in March 2015. Tanavadee was awarded as “Outstanding Civil Servant” of the year 2014.

…Read an interview with Tanavadee Khuvasanont

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January 2016

Nurbek Toichubaev (YLP ’03), Founder and CEO, Invivo LLP, Almaty, Kazakhstan

After graduating from Kyrgyz State National University in Bishkek in 1997, Nurbek started his career at GosComInvest, the Kyrgyz State Commission on Foreign Investments and External Assistance, where he was responsible for attracting foreign investments and aid. In 2002, he was invited by the President administration to work in the economy policy department where he worked until his enrolment in the Young Leaders Program at GRIPS in 2002. After returning from Japan, he worked for an internet company before moving to neighbouring Kazakhstan to set up his own business, Invivo LLP, a medical laboratory company providing diagnostic testing services in 2007. The company has grown rapidly and currently employs over 3000 people.

 

In his free time, Nurbek is very actively engaged in sports and he recently won the Bronze Medal at the World Paratriathlon Championship in Chicago, USA. It is his dream to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

…Read an interview with Nurbek Toichubaev