As the Director of SEARCA since 2003, Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan leads the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization's (SEAMEO's) center of excellence for agriculture and rural development. He is on secondment from the University of the Philippines Diliman where he has been a member of the faculty of the School of Economics since 1988.

He also serves in the Policy Advisory Council (Member) of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Board of Advisors (Chairman) of the Asian Institute of Management-TeaM Energy Center for Bridging Societal Divides, Technical Advisory Council (Member) of the Philippine Congress Commission on Science & Technology and Engineering, and Executive Committee (President) of the Human Development Network.

Prior to his appointment at SEARCA, he served as Agriculture Undersecretary (Deputy Minister) in the Philippine Government and, concurrently, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Agribusiness Corporation, and Member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation.

A leading development economist in Southeast and East Asia, he has served as adviser and expert in poverty and rural development issues to Government chief executives and legislators and to bilateral and multilateral development institutions, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and various United Nations agencies.

He has held leadership positions in professional associations, both nationally and internationally, including serving as President of the Philippine Economic Society in 2006 and Founding Secretary-General of the Asia-Pacific Agricultural Policy Forum (which organizes the annual Forum in Jeju, Korea) in 2003-2006. Currently, he is the President-Elect of the Asian Society of Agricultural Economists.

His research interests are on poverty, inequality, agricultural and regional development, sustainable development, and political economy of policy reforms. His publications in these areas include 7 books and about 100 journal articles and book chapters. The more recent book titles include The Dynamics of Regional Development: The Philippines in East Asia (Edward Elgar, UK, 2007, with H. Hill), Reasserting the Rural Development Agenda: Lessons Learned and Emerging Challenges in Asia (ISEAS, Singapore, and SEARCA, 2007, with N. Fuwa), and The Philippine Economy: Development, Policies, and Challenges (Oxford University Press, 2003, with H. Hill). He is the Founding Editor of the Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development.

A recipient of numerous professional and publication awards, he was conferred the title of Academician by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST, Philippines) in July 2008.

He holds a PhD (Economics) from the University of Hawaii, a Master's degree (Agricultural Economics) from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and a Bachelor's degree (Agriculture) from the Mariano Marcos State University.