Paul Balaran

As executive vice president, secretary, and chief operating officer, Paul Balaran worked closely with the president to oversee and manage all aspects of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In addition to directly overseeing the finance, human resources and administration, and development departments, Balaran assists the president in managing Carnegie’s relationship with its board of trustees and, with the president and vice presidents for studies, guides the research activities of the 100-year-old institution.

Balaran joined Carnegie in January 1995 after twelve years in the Ford Foundation’s International Affairs Program. Among other priorities at Ford, he directed program development and grantmaking on economic reform and social policy in Russia and Central Europe and was also active in grantmaking in China and Japan.

Previously, Balaran was an assistant vice president in the international division of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. He received his B.A. in East Asian studies from Princeton University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in East Asian languages and civilization, specializing in East Asian history and politics, from Harvard University, where he was also a member of the Society of Fellows.

He has served on the board of trustees of the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C. and the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and on the board of editors at Orbis, the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s quarterly journal of world affairs.