Past ACCFs

UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific

Richard A Engelhardt is the UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok, where he heads UNESCO's culture sector programmes for the Asia-Pacific region. He was educated in history, archaeology and anthropology of the Asia-Pacific region at Yale and Harvard universities. Following his graduation, he joined the United Nations where, for the past 25 years, he has directed heritage conservation and culture development projects throughout Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. In this capacity, Mr. Engelhardt has pioneered many regional initiatives in the field of culture and heritage including: the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Awards, the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handicraft Projects, the Asia-Pacific Performing Arts Network, and the UNESCO-ICCROM Asian Academy for Heritage Management.

As Head of the UNESCO Office in Cambodia, Mr. Engelhardt launched and directed the international safeguarding campaign for Angkor during the 1990s. In recognition of his services in the preservation of the Angkor monuments, H.M. King Norodom Sihanouk awarded Mr. Engelhardt the prestigious title of Commandeur de l'Ordre Royal du Cambodge.

In addition to his Cambodian knighthood, Mr. Engelhardt has been decorated by the governments of China, the Philippines and Viet Nam for his services to the conservation of cultural heritage. He has also been honoured by the Global Heritage Fund with a Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the conservation of Asia's heritage.

Mr. Engelhardt is the author of numerous scholarly publications and has held Visiting Lectureships at the University of Hawaii (USA), Waseda University (Japan), Southeast University (China) and the University of Hong Kong. He sits on the Board of International Advisors of Deakin University's (Australia) Centre for Culture Heritage Studies. He is a founding member of mAAN (the Modern Asian Architecture Association) and has served on the Executive Committee of the Indo-Pacific Prehistorians Association and on the Board of the Siam Society under Royal Patronage and is a Director of the Thailand Culture Environment Fund. He is Honorary Patron of the Jaipur (India) Heritage Trust; and is advisor to Badan Warisan Malaysia (the Malaysian Heritage Trust.)

As the convenor of the 2005 Creative Communities International Symposium in Jodhpur, India and as chair of the UN Inter-Agency Working Group for Cultural Industry Statistics, Mr. Engelhardt is of one the UN's principal architects of culture industry strategies for development.