Our People

Officers

Dr. Hong-Koo Lee

Honorary Chairman

Dr. Lee has held distinguished academic, diplomatic, and political positions. He is a former Prime Minister, and Minister of Unification, and served as the Republic of Korea's ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States of America. In addition, Dr. Lee is Chairman of the Board for the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and a Board Member of the Asia Foundation. Dr. Lee has taught at Emory University and Case Western University in the United States, and was a Professor at Seoul National University from 1968 to 1988. Dr. Lee holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University, and received his B.A. from Emory University.

Mr. Dong-Bin Shin

Chairman

Mr. Shin's career in international business started when he began work for Nomura Securities in 1981. He is presently the Chairman of the Lotte Group. Additionally, Mr. Shin is Vice President of the Federation of Korean Industries, and President of the Korea-Japan Economic Association. Mr. Shin holds an MBA from Columbia University, and received his B.A. from Aoyama Gakuin University.

Ms. Yvonne Yoon-Hee Kim

Executive Director

Ms. Kim is a professional event planner, non-profit program developer and media communications expert. From 1998-2007, Ms. Kim held varying roles at Columbia University's financial management and administrative departments, including managing special events for the President's Office. Prior to joining the Korea Center in July 2008, she was an Executive Associate for the Senior Vice President of Operations at Asia Society's New York headquarters. Ms. Kim has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in East Asian Studies. She is fluent in Korean.

Board Members

Dr. Sung-joo Han

Dr. Sung-Joo Han is the Chairman of the Korean American Association, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies (AIPS) and the International Policy Studies Institute of Korea (IpsiKor). He also serves as President Emeritus of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and is a Professor Emeritus at Korea University. Prof. Han previously served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1993, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus in 1996, a member of the UN Inquiry Commission on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide in 1999, Chairman of the East Asia Vision Group in 2000, and Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States in 2003. Dr. Han is a graduate of Seoul National University in 1962 and received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. Previously, he taught at City University of New York in 1970 and was a visiting Professor at Columbia University in 1986 and Stanford University in 1992. He was also a Distinguished Fellow at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 1986. His English publications include Korean Diplomacy in an Era of Globalization (1995), Korea in a Changing World (1995), and Changing Values in Asia (1999). He has many publications in Korean, including Nam Gwa Puk, kurigo Sekye (The Two Koreas and the World) (2000).

Mr. Young Joon Kim

Mr. Young Joon (“YJ”) Kim is a partner in the Projects Energy & Infrastructure Finance Group of the International law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, currently heading its Seoul Office. Having joined the firm in 1983, he has previously served in the firm’s offices in New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Mr. Kim’s practice is highly diversified, with a concentration on large- scale, cross-border project development and financing and M&A transactions, particularly in the power, energy, petrochemical and other capital-intensive sectors. His recent experience has included advising parties in a petrochemical project in the United States, a power project in Indonesia, a nuclear power project in the Middle East, a petrochemical project in Southeast Asia, a steel mill project in Latin America, a semiconductor project in China, and a telecommunication project in Thailand. A graduate of Yale College, B.A., and Harvard Law School, J.D., Mr. Kim is a member of the New York State Bar and speaks regularly at conferences and training seminars as well as at industry associations and universities.

Mr. Mark Tetto

Mr. Mark Tetto is Partner at TCK, in charge of investor relations and investment strategies review. Mark brings 10 years of finance experience spanning investment banking, corporate M&A, private equity and venture capital investing. Prior to TCK, Mark was at Samsung Electronics’ corporate M&A team, where he spent four years successfully acquiring companies and building the firm’s M&A practice. Previously, Mark was with Morgan Stanley, working in New York and London on M&A and corporate finance, raising funding for clients in excess of $1Bn. Mark holds a BA in Chemistry from Princeton University, and an MBA from The Wharton School, with a concentration in Finance.