Kao Kim Hourn

Kao Kim Hourn, 59, currently serves as Minister Delegate attached to the Office of Prime Minister.

During the Khmer Rouge regime, his family was displaced and ended up spending several years in a refugee camp before moving to Texas, United-States, where he started school. After studying Asian studies, he obtained two Master’s degrees in 1991; one in Political Science, the other in International Affairs.

In 1993, he returned to Cambodia to research UN peace-keeping activities and started to work at the Think Tank Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) until 2004. During that time, he completed his dissertation on Cambodia’s foreign policy and ASEAN and got a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Hawaii. He also established the University of Cambodia in 2003.

In 2007, he started to be involved in the media business with Sem Sovandeth, his business partner. They were then negotiating with a Japanese investor to fund a network of television and radio stations.

In 2009, Kao Kim Hourn lodged a complaint against his business partner for “breach of trust”. The same year, he appointed an advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen. A year later, he became a member of the Supreme National Economic Council in 2010 and served as a Secretary of State for the Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation from 2003 to 2013. He has also received six Decorations of Honor from the Kingdom of Cambodia; as well an Honorary Doctorate in Public Service from Ohio University.