CGA Team
Frank Aum,
Senior Advisor
Frank Aum is a Senior Advisor at Cambridge Global Associates with a focus on U.S. national security and foreign policy. Aum has two decades of government leadership, think tanks, academia, and law, and is a recognized authority on Korean Peninsula strategy and Northeast Asia regional affairs.
Most recently, Aum was the senior expert on Northeast Asia at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), where he focused on ways to strengthen diplomacy to reduce tensions and enhance peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. From 2010 to 2017, he worked at the Department of Defense, including as special counsel to the Army General Counsel, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and senior advisor on the Korean Peninsula in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During this time, he advised four Secretaries of Defense on issues related to Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula. Aum also served as the head of delegation for working-level negotiations with the Republic of Korea on U.S.-ROK Alliance matters and received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
Aum has been published and quoted widely in top-tier media and policy journals, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Foreign Affairs, The Diplomat, War on the Rocks, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and 38 North. He is currently a member of the board of directors for the National Committee on North Korea.
Aum previously worked as a corporate attorney and has extensive experience in the public and non-profit sectors. He completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Jeju Island, South Korea, and worked as a speechwriter in the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In addition, he worked to strengthen the Koreatown community in Los Angeles at the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and the Korean American Coalition (KAC).
Aum received his BA from Dartmouth College, his MPP from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and his JD from the University of California, Berkeley.