Prof. Hsing-Huang Michael Hsiao is Chairman of Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation and Chairman of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the National Chengchi University. Prof. Hsiao is also Chair Professor of Hakka Studies at the National Central University. He served as National Policy Advisor to the President of Taiwan between 1996 and 2006, and is currently Senior Advisor to the President of Taiwan. Prof. Hsiao was a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology in Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and was Professor of Sociology at the National Taiwan University and National Sun Yat-Sen University.

His areas of specialization include middle class, civil society and democratization in Asia, environmental movements, sustainability and risk society and comparative Hakka studies in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.