In the second episode of our Women’s Leadership series, we are pleased to welcome South Korean Minister for Trade Yoo Myung-hee for a conversation on her 25-year career in shaping the international trade infrastructure. As Deputy Minister for FTA Negotiations, and later Director-General for Bureau of Trade Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, Yoo Myung-hee has been at the forefront of numerous high-profile trade agreements, including the 2018 US-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) and the 2019 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, Minister Yoo has been integral in reforming Korea’s trade policy to respond to the current crisis as well as providing an outlook on the future of multilateral trade after COVID-19. The first female trade minister for the Republic of Korea, Minister Yoo will speak on her accomplishments and challenges in the field of international trade and cooperation as well as remark on her candidacy for Director-General of the World Trade Organization as one of two final candidates.
Moderated by Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, former US Ambassador to Korea and Korea Society Board Chair, this discussion offers a unique opportunity to gain insight from two pioneering female leaders in the U.S. -Korea relationship.
Women in Trade: A Talk with Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee
Premieres: Friday, February 26, 2021 | 7 PM EST
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
H.E. Yoo Myung-hee
Minister for Trade
Republic of Korea
Education
• 2002 Juris Doctor, Vanderbilt University Law School
• 1995 M.A. in Public Policy, Seoul National University
• 1990 B.A. in English Language and Literature, Seoul National University
Work Experience
• Mar. 2019 – Present Minister for Trade, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE)
• 2018 – 2019 Deputy Minister for FTA Negotiations, MOTIE
• 2017 – 2018 Director General for Bureau of Trade Policy, MOTIE
• 2015 – 2017 Director General for FTA Negotiations and East Asia FTA, MOTIE
• 2014 – 2015 Spokesperson for Foreign Media, Office of the President
• 2010 – 2014 Program Director, APEC Secretariat, Singapore
• 2007 – 2010 First Secretary (2007-2008) and then Counsellor (2009-2010), Korean Embassy in China
• 2006 – 2007 Director, FTA Services Negotiation Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT)
• 2005 – 2006 Director, FTA Policy Division, MOFAT
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Amb. Kathleen Stephens
Chair, Board of Directors, The Korea Society
President & CEO, Korea Economic Institute
Ambassador (ret.) Kathleen Stephens is a former American diplomat. She was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea 2008-2011. Korea has been a leit motif of Ambassador Stephens’ life and career since she served in rural Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer, 1975-1977. She was in Korea 1983-1989, first as a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul reporting on Korea’s domestic political and human rights scene, and later leading the U.S. Consulate in Busan.
Other overseas assignments included postings to China, former Yugoslavia, Portugal, Northern Ireland, where she was U.S. Consul General in Belfast during the negotiations culminating in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and India, where she was U.S. Charge ‘d Affaires (2014-2015).
Ambassador Stephens also served in a number of policy positions in Washington at the Department of State and the White House. These included acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs (2012), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2005-2007), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2003-2005), and National Security Council Director for European Affairs at the Clinton White House.
Stephens was William J. Perry Fellow for Korea at Stanford University 2015-2018. She is a Mansfield Foundation Distinguished Fellow, Pacific Century Institute board chairman, vice-chair of the board of trustees for The Asia Foundation, and board chair of The Korea Society.
She has been President and CEO of the Korea Economic Institute of America since September 2018, based in Washington, DC.
