Richard R. Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong for the past eight years, has been selected to be the next president of the East-West Center.

He will replace Charles Morrison next year, according to the institution’s board of governors.

Morrison became the East-West Center’s president in 1998 and is credited with expanding its programs and reach, and helping to rebuild its finances after Congress cut its budget to $10 million in 1997 from $24 million in 1995.

Vuylsteke has served as president of the American Chamber in Taipei, editor-in-chief of the Taiwan Review and area studies coordinator for the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute in Taipei. He has been a Fulbright scholar at the University of Rajasthan, India.

He earned his doctorate in Asian and Western social and political philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He taught at the University of Hawaii from 1973 to 1986 and at Chaminade University. He also worked for a period for the Pacific Forum (now Pacific Forum/CSIS).