Samady Ou has nine years of experience in democracy and governance, with a focus on Cambodian cybercrime and illicit finance. Samady previously served as youth president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), working under Sam Rainsy, before the CNRP was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court in 2017 and 118 leaders were banned from politics. Since then, Samady has worked across regional and transatlantic networks to strengthen democratic cooperation and advance policy responses to emerging cross-border threats linked to authoritarian environments and weak accountability systems.

Samady is vice chairperson of CALD Youth under the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), which supports cross-party cooperation and youth leadership across Asia. He also serves as Regional Secretary (Southeast Asia/Asia-Pacific) at the World Liberty Congress (WLC), coordinating regional engagement and connecting country stakeholders to WLC’s global democracy network. In parallel, Samady’s policy and research work centers on anti-money laundering, cyber-scam economies, and human trafficking, contributing to transatlantic efforts that have included major US-UK sanctions actions and financial restrictions targeting scam-linked networks operating from Cambodia.