NCNK Steering Committee Member

Executive Director
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation

Email: lgflake@mansfieldfdn.org

Security

Expertise

- Conflict Resolution

- Korean Economics

- Security Issues

- Asian Policy

- NGOs

Background

Mr. Flake travels frequently to Japan, Korea, China and other countries in Asia as a conference participant and lecturer. He is a regular contributor on Korea issues in the U.S. and Asian press, and he has traveled to North Korea on four occasions. While at the Atlantic Council, he also facilitated the visit to the United States of numerous official and unofficial delegations from the DPRK. Mr. Flake has published extensively on policy issues in Asia. His most recent book, Paved with Good Intentions: The NGO Experience in North Korea, examines the impact of NGO and UN humanitarian relief efforts in North Korea after 1995.

Biography

L. Gordon Flake was appointed Executive Director in February 1999. Prior to joining the Mansfield Foundation, he was a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States. Before moving to The Atlantic Council, he served as Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Mr. Flake was born in Rehoboth, New Mexico. He received his B.A. degree in Korean with a minor in international relations from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He completed his M.A. at the David M. Kennedy Center for International and Area Studies, also at B.Y.U. His master's thesis was on the economic reforms in Laos. He lived in Korea for a number of years and speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian. He has seven young children and is married to Pakayvanh Sisoutham of Vientiane, Laos.

Views expressed by individual National Committee on North Korea members are their own and should not be attributed to the National Committee itself. With the exception of statements that have been approved by the membership, NCNK does not advocate particular policies or take positions on issues.

Organizations are listed for identification purposes only.