Ambassador Pou Sothirak is a Distinguished Senior Adviser to the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies (CCRS), a foreign policy think tank focused on fostering research and dialogue among Cambodia’s younger generation. He is a retired academic and former senior government official with extensive experience in international relations, diplomacy, and public policy. He served as Cambodia’s Ambassador to Japan from 2005 to 2009 and was Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy from 1993 to 1998. He was elected as Member of Parliaments of Cambodia twice during national elections in 1993 and 2003. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. He previously served as Secretary of State at Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for Cooperation and Peace. He has been appointed as advisor to the Cambodian government with the rank of Minister since 2013 until the present time.