Zandanshatar Gombojav comes to Stanford as a Visiting Scholar at CDDRL, having recently served as the General Secretary of the Mongolian People's Party, Mongolia's largest party by membership. From 2004 until 2012, he was a Member of the Parliament of Mongolia, and from 2009 to 2012, he was Mongolia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Before his appointment as Foreign Minister, during which he had many foreign policy accomplishments from renewing the country's foreign policy concept to adopting new trade agreements with several partners, he had a successful career in Mongolia's banking sector, working at the Agricultural Bank, Khan Bank, and the Central Bank of Mongolia. He also served as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, before being elected to Parliament. After graduating from the State Institute of Finance in Russia, he began his career as a Lecturer on Economics and Finance at Mongolia's Institute of Commerce and Industry.
His current research interest focuses on issues related to the democratic and political development of Mongolia given its geostrategic situation. At Stanford, he will be working on a larger research project encompassing regional democratic and political development from Mongolia's unique perspective.

He has published extensively on various banking issues and also on topics regarding the international relations process in refereed journals and different conference proceedings. He has been a strong supporter of the reform process, being actively involved in the organisation of youth development.