Dr. Thomas Cynkin, an acknowledged authority on Japan and broader Asian affairs, brings senior-level experience spanning government, business, and academia. His analysis and interviews on Asia-focused business and security have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Politico, NBC News, USA Today, Yonhap News, The Straits Times, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Sankei Shimbun, and Nikkei Asia, inter alia.
As a career foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, Tom served as a Japanese-speaking diplomat in Japan; as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Geneva, Switzerland; and as Chief of Staff to an Undersecretary of State. He also served as Special Assistant to two Deputy Secretaries of State and Advisor to two U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations, among other assignments. He is the recipient of multiple State Department awards, including a commendation from the Secretary of State for “extraordinary service to the American people” on the 9/11 Task Force.
Tom left the Foreign Service to lead the Washington operation of Fujitsu Ltd., a global information technology corporation, as Vice president and General manager. He also served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association representing Fortune 50 high tech corporations.
In academia, Tom has served as a nonresident Senior Fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security; taught graduate seminars on the economies of China and Japan at George Washington University; and held a senior staff position at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, D.C.
Tom served most recently as Senior Policy Department Director at the R Street Institute, overseeing R Street’s policy directors, leading them and their teams to achieve prominence and policy impact in technology and innovation, energy and environment, finance and insurance, good governance, criminal justice, and healthy communities.
Tom earned his PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and was a Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government before entering public service.