Jia Jun was born and raised in Kajang, Malaysia. He attended United World College in Hong Kong for his last two years of high school. Afterward, he earned a B.A. in geography from Middlebury College in Vermont, which included a semester studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan. Upon graduation, Jia Jun worked with numerous think tanks and multilateral development institutions in Washington, D.C., including the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic Society, and World Resources Institute. He spent 4 years at the World Bank conducting research, analytical, and policy work on the intersection of economic development and environmental sustainability. In the year prior to the MPA program, he returned to Southeast Asia to work on sustainable coastal management and the blue economy in Jakarta, Indonesia. This past summer, he worked as a Sustainable Finance intern at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. After the MPA, Jia Jun plans to develop policy solutions that make economic development more equitable and sustainable. In his free time, he enjoys exploring new places, cycling, hiking, soccer, practicing his beginner-level Spanish, and Southeast Asian food.