Richard Lanier is president of the Asian Cultural Council and director of the Trust for Mutual Understanding in New York.

After receiving his M.A. at New York University, he taught art history at the University of California in Santa Barbara and at The Johns Hopkins University.

In 1972, he joined The JDR 3rd Fund, a private foundation established by John D. Rockefeller 3rd to promote cultural exchange between Asia and the United States. In 1975, he was appointed director of the Fund and in 1980 became president of the Asian Cultural Council, a public foundation that continues the Fund's Asian-American exchange program. The Council's headquarters are in New York and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Manila.

The Trust for Mutual Understanding is a private foundation that supports cultural and environmental exchanges between the United States, Russia, and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Lanier has been director of the Trust since it was created in 1984.

In addition to serving as a trustee of the Asian Cultural Council and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Lanier is currently on the boards of the Japan Society, the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, and the Chinese International School Foundation. He is also a member of the Asian Art Advisory Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.