Lawrence Hardy II began his assignment as USAID's Mission Director to the Philippines, 12 Pacific Islands, and Mongolia in September 2017. He holds the rank of Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service.

With 28 years of USAID development experience, he has served tours in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South Asia, as well as in South America. Prior to assuming his current position based in Manila, he served in Washington as the Agency's Senior Deputy Chief Information Officer as well as the Agency's Director for Human Resources for USAID’s global workforce comprised of more than 10,000 development professionals.

Mr. Hardy was a Management Consultant for a boutique, California-based private sector firm, before he joined USAID, that developed economic diversification strategies for Asia Pacific Rim countries that spanned from Japan to Indonesia.

Mr. Hardy received his Masters in Business Administration from the University of California/Berkeley's Haas School of Business as well as his Bachelors of Arts degree from Harvard University. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, French, and Arabic.