Todd Wassel directs The Asia Foundation’s Thailand office and leads the Foundation’s ASEAN programming, anchoring regional work across the Mekong from Bangkok. His work concerns the political economy of Southeast Asia’s overlapping transitions in energy, digital technology, capital, and labor, and why the region’s stated ambitions so often outpace delivery.
Todd began his Asia career in Bangkok in 2005, researching Sweden’s ten-year sustainable development strategy for the region. He spent the following decade working on land, conflict, and contested resources: as country director for the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions in Sri Lanka during the final years of the civil war, developing land and conflict strategies for USAID’s Sri Lanka mission, and coordinating a multi-agency United Nations peacebuilding and service delivery program in the divided city of Mitrovica, Kosovo.
He joined The Asia Foundation in Timor-Leste in 2012, leading community security and land governance programs before serving as country representative. As country representative in Lao PDR from 2019 to 2024, he worked on strengthening the National Assembly, governance systems, and judicial and legal institutions with the Ministry of Justice, alongside renewable energy planning and land policy.
Since 2024 he has led the Thailand office, which works across bilateral Thailand programming, the Mekong subregion, ASEAN, and Myanmar. The portfolio spans environmental and social safeguards for large-scale infrastructure across the Mekong through the Mekong Safeguards program; energy transition and power sector reform; women, peace and security at both ASEAN and Mekong levels; digital economy access and cybersecurity for small and medium enterprises; village-level development and governance in Myanmar; and strategy development for ASEAN, including on the policy gaps around artificial intelligence and cross-border information flows.
His publications include Energy Assessment of the Mekong Sub-Region (2024), an analysis of the energy sector in Lao PDR commissioned by DFAT (2021), and studies of land tenure in Timor-Leste and hybrid peacebuilding. He is the author of Walking in Circles: Finding Happiness in Lost Japan, an account of Japan’s contradictions while walking a 750-mile pilgrimage.
Master's degree in law and diplomacy, with a concentration in conflict resolution and international law, from the Fletcher School at Tufts University; bachelor's degree in Asian studies and comparative religious studies from Colgate University. Certified Expert in Climate and Renewable Energy Financing, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.