Minja Yang Paringaux

Since graduating from ASIJ in 1970, I went to universities in Paris, Washington DC (Georgetown); Geneva; London (SOAS, Univ of London), worked as a reporter for an English-language weekly in Bangkok while doing my PhD thesis, but got side-tracked to work at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which lasted ten years until I transferred to UNESCO in 1989 as my French journalist husband Roland, moved back to Le Monde headquarters; after 20 years at UNESCO serving in the Cabinet of the DG in charge of interagency
emergency programmes, then from 1990-94 as Head of Cambodia Task Force & Chief of Angkor Unit dealing with the cultural site of Angkor; from 1993-2004 as Chief of the Asia-Pacific desk at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, then as its Deputy Director, until I became Director for Museums for one year, then shifted to my dream job as Director of the UNESCO Subregional Office in New Delhi & UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives & Sri Lanka. I took early-retirement from UNESCO in 2009 to take-up the offer of teaching at the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation of the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium (RLICC/KU Leuven), then appointed as its President in 2010. Since retiring from the UN, I've been living in Paris and Tokyo with frequent stays in Leuven for my university work, as well as in India where I continue to have urban heritage projects.

(Shall fill-in later...)