Brian R. Braun

Program Director, Malaysia

Brian has served as the International Republican Institute’s Program Director in Malaysia since 2021. In this role, Brian provides strategic oversight of several U.S. Department of State and National Endowment for Democracy-funded projects focusing on civil society development, youth political empowerment, subnational governance, and political party strengthening.

Brian is a governance specialist with nine years of experience designing and implementing voter and civic education, political party strengthening, and election support programs in Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and elsewhere. He is also interested in integrating public opinion research into program design and has led several pilot initiatives to test innovative research methodologies to support IRI’s work, including random intercepting online survey and predictive modeling.

From 2019-2021, Brian served as IRI’s Resident Program Manager in Malaysia and from 2013-2019 supported IRI’s programs in the Middle East and North Africa in various roles. Prior to joining IRI, Brian served at the Atlantic Council and at the Project on Middle East Democracy supporting research and advocacy on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. He earned his M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago and B.A. in International Relations and German from Cornell College.