Hai Nguyen • Nguyễn Lê Đông Hải

Hi. I'm Hai.

I'm an economic analyst based in Southeast Asia with global experience in business diplomacy, financial services, and impact management. I've worked for the world's leading multilaterals, consultancies, think tanks, and nonprofits across Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. Currently @ IFC, World Bank Group.

About me

Born and raised in the Central Vietnamese town of Quảng Ngãi, I am a recent graduate of Georgetown University‘s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., where I majored in international economics and pursued graduate studies in global business and finance.

An economic analyst, my interests lie in development economics, business diplomacy, and climate change in Asia-Pacific. My graduate thesis, which won a unanimous distinction, investigates the challenges facing the green energy transition in my country Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Having conducted rigorous econometrics research and policy development, I have complemented this academic training with work experience at institutions like the World Bank, IFC, Brookings, PwC, and McKinsey, where I was the Firm’s first-ever summer business analyst based in Vietnam.

My writing has appeared in The Diplomat, USA Today, and Newsweek, among others, and I most recently served as the senior economics editor for the peer-reviewed Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. I was named a Young Economist of the Year finalist by the Financial Times and the Royal Economic Society in 2019, and was nominated for Vietnam’s WeChoice Award in 2023.

I co-founded and chair the Global Association of Economics Education, a UN-recognized nonprofit working to make economics literacy more accessible among students in the Global South. I have been awarded various fellowships, including the United Nations Association Graduate Fellowship, where I participated and spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as well as the MSFS Centennial Fellowship from Georgetown University, the Doyle Global Dialogue Fellowship from the Berkley Center, and the Royal Society of Arts Fellowship, among others.

My amateur interest is classical music, which you can listen to on Spotify (at your own risk!). I am also a hobbyist software developer and would release some erratic projects from time to time. 

Snapshot

Education

Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service
MSFS in Global Business & Finance, Distinction
BSFS in International Economics, Summa Cum Laude
Honors society membership in ΦΒΚ, ΑΣΝ, and ΟΔΕ

Selected Work Experience

World Bank
McKinsey
Brookings
PwC
MIT
Brand Name

What's in a name?

Like most Vietnamese names, mine — Nguyễn Lê Đông Hải — carries a deep connection to my heritage and family roots. “Nguyễn” (阮) and “” (黎) honor the family names from my father’s and mother’s sides. Meanwhile, “Đông” (東) and “Hải” (海) are my middle and first names, reflecting my parents’ aspirations for my character and the coastal origins of my hometown Quảng Ngãi, which faces the East Sea (Đông Hải).

In adapting to Western naming conventions, much of the nuance and ordering of our Vietnamese names are unfortunately lost. Some ‘Western’ variants of my name are Hai Nguyen, Hai L. NguyenLe Dong Hai Nguyen, Hai Le Dong Nguyen, and DoHa Nguyen (a portmanteau of my middle and first names).

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