Graduate of the month: Tuvshinzaya Gantulga
For most of the past decade, Mr. Tuvshinzaya Gantulga (Tuvshin) has contributed significantly to bilateral relations between Mongolia and the United States. He was the first Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Mongolia from 2013-2015, studied as a Fulbright foreign student from Mongolia in 2015-2017, worked as a foreign policy officer and policy assistant foreign of the president. of Mongolia in 2017-2021, and served as rifleman and national liaison to coordinate Mongolian and NATO troops in Afghanistan in 2019-2020. As his career in public policy takes off, he will have many more opportunities to improve the well-being of his fellow citizens in Mongolia and make an impact on diplomacy.
As executive director of AmCham Mongolia, Tuvshin advocated for improvements in Mongolia’s legal and business environment to attract US investment. This helped him realize his interest in public policy and led him to apply to the Fulbright Foreign Student Program to pursue a master’s degree in public administration at Columbia University. “It was a big dream come true for me,” Tuvshin said of his Fulbright experience. “The opportunity to join a large family of leading international professionals and scholars to network and collaborate, I think, was the most important aspect of my exchange.”
After graduating, Tuvshin contributed to Mongolia’s diplomatic efforts as a foreign policy officer as well as a foreign policy assistant to the President of Mongolia. During his tenure in government, Tuvshin was also a reserve officer in the Mongolian Armed Forces and deployed to Afghanistan to serve as the national liaison between the Mongolian Expeditionary Task Force and NATO forces.
With these diverse experiences under his belt, Tuvshin continues to strive to become an experienced and competent public policy practitioner. “The better we understand society, the factors that make it up, the better the policies we offer,” Tuvshin explained. “With my current experience in civil society, business and investment, foreign policy and defence, and I hope to have more experience in the private sector gained in the near future, I want to continue building my career in public policy.”