Steven CM Wong is a Board Member and the Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, an autonomous, government-supported nonprofit research institute established in 1983. Information about ISIS Malaysia’s organisation and activities can be found at www.isis.org.my.

He has been with the Institute for 25 years, and he presently oversees policy-oriented studies on a wide range of global, regional and national economic, security and social issues. His own work has primarily been on the Asia Pacific, with a focus on East Asia and ASEAN regional institutions and countries. More recently, he has been involved in human security issues, especially asylum seekers and refugees.

Steven studied economics at the University of Melbourne, Australia at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. He then joined an international management consulting firm and, in mid-career, held senior positions in investment management, stockbroking and corporate finance. He was also appointed to head the think tank of a Malaysian political party.

A lifelong believer in multi- and cross-disciplinary approaches and thinking, Steven’s reading extends from the humanities to the social and natural sciences. Apart from self-interests, he finds cognitive biases—his own and in others—a major barrier to the analysis and resolution of problems and good policymaking.