Our People

Jonathan Karp

Executive Director

Jonathan joined Asia Society in 2014, following a career in journalism that included a decade in Asia. Most recently, he served as Senior Editor at Marketplace Radio, leading the business coverage for their family of public radio shows.

Jonathan began his journalism career in Israel in 1986 and continued as a foreign correspondent based in Hong Kong, New Delhi and Sao Paulo, the last two posts as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal. In 2004, he moved with the Journal to Los Angeles, where he has lived since, with his wife and twin daughter and son. Jonathan studied Middle Eastern History at Princeton. 

Trisha Ong

Assistant Director

Trisha comes to Asia Society from the U.S. State Department, where she served in Washington, Zambia, China, and Singapore over the past 12 years. Highlights of her diplomatic career include working as Staff Assistant to Ambassador Gary Locke in Beijing and assisting with President Obama’s participation at the East Asia Summits in Myanmar and Malaysia. Prior to joining the foreign service, she helped organized three Olympic Games — Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Salt Lake City 2002.

The daughter of Sino-Burmese immigrants, Trisha is a native of Los Angeles.

Richard Drobnick

Chair, Asia Society Southern California

Trustee, the Asia Society

Richard Drobnick is the founding director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Marshall School of Business, which has been supported by the U.S. Department of Education since 1990 as one of its 33 national resource centers on international business. From 1994 to 2005, Drobnick served as USC's inaugural Vice Provost for International Affairs.

Drobnick was the founding Secretary General and a member of the Steering Committee (1997- 2011) of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), an association of presidents of 42 leading Pacific Rim research universities. From 2006 to 2011, Drobnick launched and led APRU's Pacific Rim activities on "Sustainability and Climate Change" and "Public Health". Presently, he serves as APRU's Senior Strategic Advisor on its "Sustainability and Climate Change" and "Global Public Health" activities.

Drobnick specializes in Pacific Rim economic and business issues and U.S. and Pacific Rim trade policies. He is the author of numerous articles regarding international economics and business, as well as the co-author of Neither Feast nor Famine: Food Conditions to the Year 2000 (D.C. Heath, 1978) and co-editor of Small Firms in Global Competition (Oxford University Press, 1994).

Drobnick is a member of the United States Asia Pacific Council, which is the organizing institution for the United States National Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Executive Committee of the Advisory Council of the Asia Society Southern California Center, and a director of the Japan-America Society of Southern California. From 1967 to 1969, Drobnick served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia, as a management advisor to the multi-purpose "Farmer Cooperatives" that were being launched by the Malaysian Department of Agriculture.