Tom Smith Tseng took up his current post at UC San Diego in January, 2018, tasked to develop a campus-wide international fundraising program. Prior to UCSD, Mr Tseng was vice president for development at the University of Hawai‘i Foundation. Tseng has had 25 years in university advancement with a particular focus on raising large gifts from abroad. He was a senior director at Stanford University's International Division. In 2006-2010, Tseng was senior director for the University of Chicago's satellite office in Palo Alto, California. Before that, he held progressively more responsible positions at Cornell, Harvard and Stanford Universities.

Tseng was a co-chair for this study tour in 2017 and 2018. Previously he presented on international fundraising at the CASE Summit in 2006 and 2017. In 2008 and 2011-13, he convened and chaired the International Fundraising Conferences, and served as conference chairman emeritus in 2014-15. He was also a faculty of the Advancement Institutes in Mandarin in 2011 and 2012.