Dr An Pich Hatda is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat. He was selected by the MRC Joint Committee and appointed to the office in January 2019 by the MRC Council of Water and Environment Ministers. 

As the second riparian CEO, Dr Hatda leads, manages and supervises the MRC Secretariat’s operations, ensuring proper coordination among Member Countries, Development Partners and other partners. 

Besides leading the organisation in expediting the implementation and completion of the current Strategic Plan 2016-2020, he supervises the development of the Basin Development Strategy for 2021-2030 and Strategic Plan for 2021-2025 and steers the reinvigoration of the MRC’s data, modelling, forecasting and communication systems.  

Dr Hatda, a Cambodian national, provides strategic leadership on the MRC’s commitment to the development sustainability of the Mekong basin through mainstreaming of environment, climate change and disaster risk, governance, gender equity, and regional cooperation across the MRC’s strategic planning and development framework. He is also responsible for ensuring due diligence and quality assurance of the MRC’s operations, financially contributed by the Member Countries and supported by Development Partners. He anchors the MRC Secretariat’s communication on water development issues and access to information across stakeholders at local, regional and international levels, bringing the organisation’s public image to a new level. 

In a career spanning almost three decades, Dr Hatda has gained extensive experience in the water resources management and development sector and organisational development. He held various senior positions such as Director of Planning Division, Operations Manager of the Regional Flood Management and Mitigation Centre of the MRC, as well as Deputy Secretary General of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee and Alternate Member of the MRC Joint Committee for Cambodia. 

In his earlier career, he worked for international non-governmental development agencies, including Partnership for Development in Kampuchea and Catholic Relief Services as Program Manager, and lectured in a number of universities in Cambodia. 

He was also a former Steering Committee Member of the Southeast Asia Global Water Partnership, and a former Member of the Movement for Rural Reconstruction with the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction. 

Dr Hatda holds a PhD degree in Development Studies from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and has a Master of Science in Agricultural Planning and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy Science from the Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia. 

As a water resources management and development professional, Dr Hatda has spoken at local and national-level public meetings, expert group meetings and international conferences in different countries around the word. Together with a number of academic journals published to his name, he has contributed to advancing public debate, understanding and knowledge on water diplomacy and transboundary river governance and management in the Mekong region.