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In 2013, he was promoted to the position of Minister Delegate Attached to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, in charge of Foreign Affairs and ASEAN, which he currently holds. From October 2016 to May 2017, he served as the vice chairman of Cambodia's Inter-Ministerial Committee for the World Economic Forum on ASEAN 2017. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia and is also a Member of the Global Council of The Asia Society. In 2018, he was appointed to serve on the Board of the Cambodian Higher Education Association (CHEA) as both the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Dissemination Affairs Committee. In September 2018, he was reappointed for a second term as Minister Delegate Attached to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia in charge of Foreign Affairs and ASEAN, from 2018-2023. In July 2019, Kao was nominated to be Secretary General of ASEAN from 2023-2027, and it is the first time a Cambodian will have held the post.

He has concurrently served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Worldwide Support for Development based in Tokyo since 2008. He has also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Cambodian Red Cross for two terms, with each term serving up to five years (first term: 2008–2013; second term: 2013–present). He was Alternative Member for Cambodia's National Representation for the ASEAN Political-Security Council from August 2009 to September 2013, as well as Secretary-General of the ASEAN National Secretariat of Cambodia from 2004 to 2013.

In 2007, South East Asia Television and South East Asia Radio, popularly known as SEATV, were established by Kao. The SEATV headquarters is located on UC's Phnom Penh campus, and are used in conjunction with UC's College of Media and Communications for practical degree components.

Kao is also the Secretary General of the Asian Faiths Development Dialogue (AFDD), which was founded by Dr. Haruhisa Handa in December 2006. The purpose of AFDD is to enhance dialogue between different faith groups, and bring faith communities together to achieve humanitarian and development aims.

Since 2006, Kao has served as the Vice Chairman for the Advisory Board of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia at the Office of the Council of Ministers.

Kao is a founding committee member, and vice-chairman of AEF, which was established by UC in May 2005. AEF is a think-tank promoting policy dialogue around major issues facing the Asia-Pacific region. AEF has generally been held on an annual basis in Phnom Penh.

Kao worked as CICP's first executive director for 10 years, until 2004, though he has remained as a Member of the Board of Directors (2004–present). The CICP was at the forefront of supporting Cambodia in becoming a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1999, the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and International Studies and the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific (CSCAP) during Kao's tenure. He has published many books on ASEAN and Cambodian-ASEAN relations, and gained significant experience in ASEAN through the activities of the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and International Studies. His time at CICP also involved significant interactions with the Royal Government of Cambodia, as an advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

In 2004, he was appointed as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation a position he held until 2013. During his tenure as Secretary of State, Kao worked extensively with ASEAN, developing relationships and managing Cambodia's participation in the organization's many mechanisms. As such, he was a key player in the development and negotiation of the ASEAN Charter, as the Cambodian representative to the ASEAN High Level Task Force on the Drafting of the ASEAN Charter. In addition to ASEAN, Kao was also responsible for the ASEAN Plus Three, the ASEAN Plus One mechanisms, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the East Asia Summit (EAS), as well as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)

In 2003, Kao founded The University of Cambodia (UC). UC offers degree programs based on the American credit-based system, with courses taught in the English language. Kao was inspired to create a Cambodian higher education institution modeled in a similar way to the United States that focuses on developing students' critical thinking and problem solving skills. Those values are reflected in the vision and mission of The University of Cambodia. The University offers Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degree programs through its twelve colleges and schools: the College of Arts, Humanities and Languages, the College of Education, the College of Law, the College of Media and Communications, the College of Science and Technology, the College of Social Sciences, the Techo Sen School of Government and International Relations, and The Tony Fernandes School of Business. Additionally, the School of Graduate Studies oversees the university's graduate programs, and the School of Undergraduate Studies manages the undergraduate programs. In May 2018, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport approved two new schools which were launched later in the year: the School of Creative Arts and the School of Foreign Languages.

Kao served as Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Royal Government of Cambodia from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2001 to 2004 with the rank of Undersecretary of State. He also became a member of the Supreme National Economic Council with the rank of minister when SNEC was founded in 1999 and has been a member since then.

Kao Kim Hourn is currently Minister Delegate Attached to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, a Member of the Supreme National Economic Council, Senior Fellow at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, a Member of the Global Council of The Asia Society, and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Worldwide Support for Development (WSD). His official title is His Excellency Dr. Kao Kim Hourn. He has been involved in Cambodian public service and think tanks since he returned to Cambodia in 1993, after being educated in the United States. He played an integral role in Cambodia's entrance into ASEAN in 1999, and has continued to be a leader for international affairs within Cambodia, as Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2001-2003) and as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2004-2013). He founded The University of Cambodia (UC) in 2003, which has become a top ranking Cambodian university under his tenure as President. He has since helped to found two think tanks: the Asia Economic Forum, and the Asian Faiths Development Dialogue. In addition, he also helped to found the South East Asia Television network and radio station, known as SEATV and Radio. In 2014, he founded the Techo Sen School of Government and International Relations at The University of Cambodia, intended to provide high-class training for administrators, policy makers, and young leaders. And in 2015, he founded the College of Media and Communications at The University of Cambodia to promote quality journalism and communications education and provide students with hands on training at Southeast Asia Television (SEATV) and Radio (FM 106). Seeing the need for high quality language education, he founded the School of Foreign Languages in 2018 which offers full degrees in English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and French and provides short courses in Thai and German. Additionally, he established the School of Creative Arts, aimed to preserve and celebrate Cambodia's rich history of art, song, and dance. In July 2019, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that he nominated Kao to become the Secretary-General of ASEAN for 2023-2027.

He was appointed as director of the Khmer International Relations Institute, and held that office from 1993 to 1994. During his time as director, he developed the Cambodia Public Accountability and Transparency project (CPAT) with funding support from the Asia Foundation. The project, one of the first counter-corruption projects in the nation, did not receive sufficient funding, and thus could not produce significant results. The project was later transformed into the Center for Social Development (CSD) when Kao became Director of the think-tank, the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP), launched earlier by His Royal Highness Prince Norodom Sirivudh in cooperation with the German Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (Phnom Phenh Post 09. September 1994).

After the Cambodian Civil War (1967–1975), the Khmer Rouge seized power and committed genocide (1975–1979). Kao received very little formal education during his childhood due to the unstable and violent conditions in Cambodia at the time. His family was granted refugee status in 1981, and eventually relocated to Herndon, Virginia. There, Kao enrolled in high school. He was 16 years old at the time and had very little educational experience and no English training. However, he was quite successful and graduated with a high school diploma with scholastic excellence three years later, in 1985. He then attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he did his B.A. in Asian Studies He received a National Fellowship Scholarship to Ohio University in Athens for his master's degree program. And in 1991, he graduated with two master's degrees in Political Science and International Affairs. Additionally, he holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu. He received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Public Service from Ohio University in 2007, as well as another Honorary Doctorate Degree in Literature from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT University) of India in 2014.

Kao was born in 1966 in Koh Sotin District in Kampong Cham province in Cambodia. His father was a school teacher throughout his life, except during the Khmer Rouge period when education was outlawed and teachers were targeted and killed. Due to the incredibly violent conditions in the nation, he and his family spent time living in refugee camps on the Cambodian-Thai border after the Khmer Rouge were removed from power in 1979, and they eventually relocated to the United States as refugees. After taking a long break from formal education, Kao completed his extensive education in the United States.