Schedule

Registration starts at 8:00 AM and breakfast will be served.


Opening Address

Michael Burke, COO, International Franchise Management and CAO, North America Region at Citi
Thomas Byrne, President and CEO, The Korea Society
Jinwoo Hwang, Senior Executive VP, Hanwha Life Insurance
Euy Whan Kim, Consul General, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York


Keynote Address

James Rhee, Founder & Author, red helicopter


Session 1 - AI-Influx: Transforming Startup Landscape
Daeil Kim, AI Research Scientist, Meta
Sung Kim, Co-founder and CEO of Upstage
Karl Stratos, Assistant Professor,Dept.of Computer Science, Rutgers University
James C. West, Managing Director, Global Head of Payments Business Execution, Strategy & Core Modernization, Citi Bank

Moderated by Julienne DeVita, Consultant, and Adjunct Professor at Parsons School of Design


Session 2 - From Challenges to Chances: A Venture Capitalist’s Perspective on K-Startups in the AI-Era
Ki Ha Lee, Founding Partner at Primer Sazze Partners
Bernard Moon, Co-founder and Partner, Sparklabs
Tae Hea Nahm, Co-founding Managing Director, Storm Ventures

Moderated by Sang Lee, CEO and Co-Founder, Vega X


Session 3 - Founders’ Lounge I: Empowering Women in the Changing Startup Landscape
Christine Chang, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Glow Recipe
Jin Hyung Lee, Founder of LVIS and Associate Professor at Stanford University
Sooinn Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Enuma, Inc.

Moderated by Shery Ahn, Anchor, Bloomberg Television


Session 4 - Founders’ Lounge: Embrace Change, Conquer Challenges, and Seize AI Opportunity
Ikkjin Ahn, Co-founder & CEO, Moloco
Saeju Jeong, Co-Founder & Executive Chair of Noom
John Kim, Co-founder and CEO, Sendbird

Moderated by Tae Young Woo, Co-Founder and CEO of Finestra


A networking lunch will be provided.

BIO

Ikkjin Ahn, Co-founder and CEO, Moloco
Ikkjin co-founded Moloco (Machine Learning Company) in 2013 to empower businesses of all sizes to grow through the power of operational Machine Learning. Moloco’s ML Engine delivers growth and performance for advertisers, commerce platforms and streaming publishers. A global company with 15 consecutive profitable quarters, Moloco has earned recognition as a Deloitte Fast 500 company, a Great Place to Work, and one of Business Insiders Top 16 Hottest Ad Tech Companies for 2023. Ikkjin is sought out for his perspectives on machine learning, data privacy, performance advertising, and growth marketing, and has been featured on CNBC International, Harvard Business Review, and Bloomberg. He was recently named by Goldman Sachs as one of the Most Exceptional Entrepreneurs at their 2023 Builders and Innovators Summit.

Prior to co-founding Moloco in 2013, Ikkjin worked at Google, where he developed YouTube’s video profitability prediction system, and was founding Tech Lead Manager for the Android Data team. Ikkjin is a 2004 graduate of Seoul National University, holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and studied Computer Science as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego.


Christine Chang, Co-CEO and Co-founder, Glow Recipe
Christine Chang is the co-CEO and co-founder of Glow Recipe, a clinically-effective, fruit-forward brand known for clean, efficacious and cruelty-free skincare innovations. Since inception, Glow Recipe has paired the latest technologies and ingredients with education to empower consumers to bring out their glow, while remaining hyper-focused on the company’s core values of real skin acceptance, inclusivity and sustainability. Glow Recipe has built an engaged community worldwide as a top ranked skincare brand in markets spanning across North America, Europe, Australia, South East Asia and Middle East and achieved $300M in retail sales in 2023. The company has received extensive global press coverage and accolades for their market leadership, social community, and beauty content in outlets such as Forbes, Vogue, Fortune, Business Insider, Inc and ABC’s Shark Tank. Glow Recipe was also part of CNBC’s Upstart 100 List and has received industry honors including WWD’s 2023 Category Builder of the Year Award, Adweek’s Creator Visionary Awards and Allure’s Best of Beauty Awards.

Prior to Glow Recipe, Christine was an executive at L’Oreal at brands such as Kiehl’s Since 1851, helming global business development, brand marketing and digital strategy. Christine received her BSBA in International Business from Washington University St. Louis in ‘04 and a Masters in East Asian Studies from Columbia University. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and daughter.


Saeju Jeong, Chairman & Co-Founder, Noom
Born in South Korea to a family of doctors, Saeju has always had an intense desire to help people. From an early age, he knew his life’s work would be dedicated to improving the well-being of as many people as possible. After founding South Korea’s first-ever heavy metal record label, it was the death of his father that prompted Saeju to become motivated to change lives for the better and use his entrepreneurial spirit to make an impact. After dropping out of college and moving to the US, Saeju met his co-founder Artem Petakov, who shared his vision of helping people live healthier lives, and Saeju convinced him to leave Google to develop Noom. In the decade and a half since, Noom has emerged as the most recognized behavior change platform and most loved weight loss program, helping to transform the lives of millions around the world. The company has also recently released its first hard copy book, The Noom Mindset, which became an overnight, national bestseller.

As Chairman, Saeju is responsible for setting the strategic vision for Noom and has led the company through several years of tremendous growth. He has received several awards including EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Harvard Business School Alumnae Association of Northern California’s Entrepreneurial Company of the Year, and others. He leads Noom’s Associate Partnership with the World Economic Forum and is a regular attendee at its Annual Meeting at Davos.


Daeil Kim, AI Research Scientist, Meta
Daeil Kim was the founder & CEO of AI.Reverie, a synthetic data startup that was acquired by Meta to help accelerate their AI efforts in AR/VR where he is currently based today. Before this he was a senior data scientist at the New York Times where he conceived and built the first version of Readerscope, an AI based content strategy tool that became the foundational model for providing insights into the NYT audience. He received his Ph.D in Computer Science from Brown University focusing on scalable machine learning algorithms and a liberal arts degree at Sarah Lawrence College. He is deeply interested in the potential for AI to reduce human suffering and accelerate our path towards self-actualization. This optimism remains even as a lifelong New Yorker.


John S. Kim, Co-Founder and CEO, Sendbird
John S. Kim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sendbird, the no. 1 conversations platform for mobile apps. Since hatching out of the Y Combinator in 2016, Sendbird’s platform has grown to serve over 300M monthly chat users across the world's leading companies, such as DoorDash, PayPal, Match Group, Yahoo!, Rakuten, and Walgreens. Under John’s leadership, Sendbird has raised $220M+ in funding from ICONIQ Capital, Tiger Global, Meritech, Emergence, SoftBank Vision Fund, Shasta, August, and Y Combinator. Sendbird officially became a unicorn in 2021. Earlier in his career, he founded Paprika Lab, a social gaming company, which later got acquired by GREE.

John also serves as a General Partner at Valon Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on B2B/SaaS/AI, deep tech, fintech, and health care.

John’s counsel and ideas are frequently sought out as an entrepreneur, investor, and thought leader. He frequently contributes articles to publications such as Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and more. He also has served as a lecturer at Stanford University and Seoul National University.

A graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Seoul National University with a degree in Computer Science, John is well regarded as an engineer and a business leader. To this day, he works passionately to ensure that products of his company vastly increase the productivity of businesses across the globe.


Sung Kim, Co-founder and CEO, Upstage
Sung Kim is the co-founder and CEO of Upstage, and is also a renowned scholar for his expertise in software development, machine learning, and deep learning. With a distinguished background that includes spearheading Naver Clova AI at Naver, one of South Korea's leading technology companies, Sung has solidified his reputation as a scholar and innovator in the field. Established in 2020, Upstage quickly rose to prominence under Sung's leadership, focusing on the development of small language AI models. Sung's multifaceted experience and profound understanding of AI technologies have been instrumental in guiding Upstage to the forefront of the industry. Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors, Sung remains deeply committed to advancing the boundaries of AI research and inspiring the next generation of AI practitioners and innovators.


Kiha Lee, Founding Partner, Primer Sazze
Kiha earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley. He co-founded Sazze, Inc. in Silicon Valley in 2005 and serves as CEO. Sazze, Inc. is a parent company to a number of fast-growing eCommerce sites including DealsPlus.com, Whizwallet.com, and Lately (formerly ShopLately).

In 2012, he joined Primer as a partner, and in 2014 he launched Sazze Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in Korea and the U.S.

Kiha currently lives and works in Silicon Valley. To meet more Korean startups, he makes frequent business trips to Korea as well as holds virtual meetings.


Jin Hyung Lee, Founder, LVIS
Jin Hyung Lee, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Bioengineering, Neurosurgery, and Electrical Engineering (Courtesy) at Stanford University and the founder of LVIS. Dr. Lee received her Bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University and Masters and Doctoral degree from Stanford University, all in Electrical Engineering. She is a recipient of the 2008 NIH/NIBIB K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2010 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, 2010 Okawa Foundation Research Grant Award, 2011 NSF CAREER Award, 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2012 Epilepsy Therapy Project award, 2013 Alzheimer’s Association New Investigator Award, 2014 IEEE EMBS BRAIN young investigator award, 2017 NIH/NIMH BRAIN grant award, and 2018 Lina 50+ Award Grand Prize, and 2019 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. As an Electrical Engineer by training with Neuroscience research interest, her goal is to analyze, debug, and engineer the brain circuit through innovative technology.


Sooinn Lee, Co-founder and CEO, Enuna Inc.
Sooinn Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Enuma Inc., an education technology company headquartered in the US with offices in Korea, Japan, China, and Indonesia. Her mission is to create exceptional learning solutions that empower ALL children to become independent learners. Enuma's software Kitkit School, a tablet-based learning software designed to build foundational literacy and numeracy skills, which won the Global Learning XPRIZE competition. Enuma School, the iterated sequel to Kitkit School, is now used in schools in remote islands in Indonesia, refugee camps in Bangladesh, micro-schools in Pakistan, and many other places where students lack access to quality education.

On the commercial side, Enuma has developed a market-leading series of educational apps including Todo Math and Todo English. With over 13 million downloads worldwide, these award-winning apps have reached #1 in education/children's categories across app stores in over 20 countries. Sooinn was named Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2020) and an Ashoka Fellow (2017) for her ongoing work in bringing accessible, quality education solutions to children worldwide.


Bernard Moon, CO-Founder & Partner, SparLabs Group
Bernard Moon is a Co-founder & Partner at SparkLabs Group, which is a network of accelerators and venture capital funds that has invested in over 500 companies across 6 continents since 2013. SparkLabs was one of nine firms globally that participated in OpenAI's recent financing round that closed in January 2024. They have also invested in Anthrophic, Vectara and others in the AI space. Their first investment in AI was in 2016 in XBrain, a Korean startup focused on bringing AI to enterprise.

Previously, Bernard was a Managing Director at the Lunsford Group, which is a private investment firm with holdings in real estate, healthcare and other industries. He serves on the advisory boards to Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Data Science and Nanyang Technological University’s EcoLabs (Centre of Innovation for Energy).


Tae Hea Nahm, Co-Founding Managing Director, Storm Ventures
Tae Hea co-founded Storm Ventures, an early stage VC fund based in Silicon Valley and investing worldwide. Storm has invested in nearly 200 B2B software companies leading to 11 unicorns, including Algolia, Marketo, Pipedrive, Solarisbank, Talkdesk and Workato. At Storm, Tae Hea was the founding CEO of Airespace, a B2B startup, which was later sold to Cisco for $450m. Based on his experience, Tae Hea also co-authored Survival To Thrival to help founders unlock growth by finding Go-To-Market Fit.

Tae Hea majored in applied math at Harvard and has a JD from University of Chicago Law School. He was born in Seoul, Korea.


James Rhee, Founder and Author, red helicopter
James Rhee is a high school teacher, Harvard Law graduate, and private equity investor who became the unexpected Chairman and CEO of Ashley Stewart, where his transformative partnership with a primarily Black female employee and customer base shocked the business community and inspired the world. His TED Talk and Dare to Lead interview with Brené Brown have captured the imagination of millions.

His leadership philosophy and operating system bridge peoples, industries, and ideas, and are the foundation of red helicopter, his media-education platform, and his teaching at Howard University as the John H. Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Duke Law School.

He is an honoree of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program, as well as a former board member of the National Retail Federation. He was a Frederick Douglass honoree of the New York Urban League, the recipient of the Council of Korean Americans’ Trailblazer Award, and a charter member of the Advisory Council of JP Morgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways.

Learn about his upcoming book red helicopter―a parable for our times: lead change with kindness (plus a little math), (HarperOne; April 9, 2024) at redhelicopter.com.


Karl Stratos, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University
Karl Stratos is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University and a Naver Scholar at Naver Corporation. His research focuses on modeling knowledge and abstraction to make AI more helpful and understandable. Past projects include neural text retrieval, knowledge-intensive language tasks, and unsupervised representation learning. He completed a PhD in computer science from Columbia University in 2016. After PhD, he was a senior research scientist at Bloomberg LP (2016-2017) and a research assistant professor at Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (2017-2019).


James C. West, Managing Director, Global Head of Payments Business Execution, Strategy & Core Modernization, Citi Bank
James’ 25+ year career has primarily been focused within Technology working for Barclays and Citi, and living in London, Tokyo, Singapore, and New York. James joined Citi in 2013 and held numerous roles within Technology supporting the Treasury Trade Solutions (TTS) franchise. In 2022 James joined the Payments Business and is now leading Business execution and product development for the ISO 20022 and Core Modernization programs. James holds a master’s degree in computer science from Nottingham Trent University, England.

Opening Speakers

Michael Burke
Michael Burke is the Head of Citi’s International Franchise Management (IFM) team. IFM helps manage Citi’s international franchise by coordinating governance, talent and business connectivity for Citi’s activities in nearly 160 countries and jurisdictions around the world. Michael joined Citi in August 1998 in the finance and strategy department of the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). Since then he has worked in a variety of Finance, Strategy and Business Risk / Compliance roles. A former US Navy officer, Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova University and Masters’ degrees from New York University and Harvard University.


Thomas Byrne
Thomas J. Byrne joined The Korea Society as President in August 2015. Since June 2023, he had also taken the role of “Honorary Ambassador,” appointed by the minister of MOTIE under the auspices of KOTRA/Invest Korea, to help promote trade and investment ties between Korea and the U.S. Byrne comes to the Society from Moody’s Investor Services, where he was Senior Vice President, Regional Manager, spokesperson, and Director of Analysis for the Sovereign Risk Group in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, based in Singapore. Prior to that, he was the Senior Economist of the Asia Department at the Institute of International Finance in Washington D.C. from 1984 to 1996. Byrne has an MA in International Relations with a concentration in international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced international Studies and a BS in Biology from State University of New York at Stony Brook. Before his graduate work, he served in South Korea for three years as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. Byrne teaches as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York City and at Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. As president, he has written opinion articles published in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg View, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The National Interest, and Reuters Breakingviews.


Jinwoo Hwang
Dr. Jinwoo Hwang currently holds the position of Senior Executive Vice President at Hanwha Life Insurance. With over three decades of work experience at Hanwha Group, Dr. Hwang has served in a variety of roles, including Senior Research Fellow, Director of Economic Research, and Director of Economic Analysis. He first joined the Hanwha Economic Research Institute in 1993, then transitioned to Hanwha Securities and Hanwha Life Insurance. Dr. Hwang earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Yale University and his B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University.


Consul General Euy Whan Kim
Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York
Mr. Euy Whan Kim began his duties as the Consul General of the Republic of Korea in New York on December 23, 2022. As a prolific author of six books and an international expert on public affairs and policy, he brings over thirty years of diverse experience in public service to his current position.

Prior to this role, Mr. Kim held various positions within the Korean government, including as the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) from July 2019 to December 2020. During his secondment to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from October 2017, he served as a Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor. Before that, from March 2011, he took on multiple Director-General roles within ACRC, such as the Bureau of Anti-corruption, Bureau of Ombudsman and Bureau of Administrative Appeals. Earlier, Mr. Kim worked as Deputy Secretary to the President for SMEs in Economic Affairs and Public Relations Planning, starting in 2008. He also worked for the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) and Ministry of Veterans and Patriots since 1991.

Mr. Kim passed the 34th High Civil Service Examination in 1990 and earned his B.A. from Korea University and his M.A. in Public Policy and Management from the Ohio State University. He has a wife and one daughter,married 1991.

Moderators

Shery Ahn
Shery Ahn is the New York-based anchor for Bloomberg Television’s flagship market open programs “Daybreak Asia” and “Daybreak Australia.” Every weekday from 6-9pm ET, Ahn brings the Wall Street close to Bloomberg’s global audience and kick starts the trading day for investors in Asia.

Ahn was raised in Bolivia and speaks Spanish, English and Korean. As an Emerging Markets Correspondent, she has also interviewed top political leaders such as the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, among others. Ahn has also sat down with some of the developing world’s top economic policymakers such as Bank of Korea’s Governor Rhee Chang-yong and Chile’s Central Bank President Rosanna Costa.

Before moving to New York, Ahn was based in Hong Kong where she covered key events including the G20 summit from Hangzhou and BOJ policy decisions from Tokyo. Her conversations with Asian business leaders and policymakers include Baidu’s Robin Li, former Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Tokyo’s Governor Yuriko Koike.

Prior to Bloomberg, Ahn was based in Tokyo as an anchor for Japan’s public broadcaster NHK World, where she reported live on the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Ahn began her broadcast career in Seoul as a Diplomatic Correspondent covering North Korea and the Six-Party Nuclear Talks in Beijing.

Ahn graduated from Seoul National University and is currently earning an MS in Global Affairs from New York University.


Julienne DeVita
Julienne DeVita is a strategic foresight consultant, and adjunct professor of artificial intelligence, design, and futures studies at Parsons School of Design. Her research explores the intersection of AI and design, with the goal of cultivating inclusive, sustainable, and conscious futures. Julienne’s practice spans clients from interdisciplinary sectors, including Autodesk, Enterprise Mobility, US Soy, and Washington DC Department of Health, among others. At Parsons, she trains adult learners in AI for Creative Leadership and Futures Studies; teaches undergraduate AI Design courses in the School of Design Strategies; and leads university-wide initiatives to bring AI to the forefront of design education.

Julienne received an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design from Parsons, and a BA in Multimedia Design from American University.


Sang H. Lee
Sang H. Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of VegaX Holdings, a digital asset management firm with offices in Seoul and New York City. Splitting his time between these two cities, Sang brings his rich background in fintech and investment banking to the global stage. As a former investment banker at BNP Paribas, he executed over $10 billion in transactions and earned the distinction of "Top Global Talent." Also a 3-time fintech founder, Sang established award-winning companies like DarcMatter and Konstellation. He has been instrumental in advocating for regulatory changes like “The JOBs Act,” “Title II” and “Title III,” championing the evolution of the financial services industry through key fintech tools. An internationally renowned speaker, Sang presents on fintech, blockchain, and digital assets at forums like the UN, Harvard University, and the World Economic Forum. His insights have been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg Radio, CNBC, and more. Sang's companies have won numerous awards under his leadership, including NextMoney’s “Best Growth Stage FinTech Company” and the FinTech Breakthrough Award for "Best Innovation for Retail Investment." VegaX was also accepted into the global accelerator, Chinaccelerator, attracting investment from multiple VC firms in 2020. As CEO, Sang is committed to enhancing capital flow, promoting transparency, and providing efficient global access to financial services through fintech solutions.


Tae Young Woo
Tae Young Woo is Co-Founder and CEO of Finestra, a healthcare data startup developing tools to make medical care more transparent and accessible to Americans. The company developed a search engine for medical bills and is quickly expanding across the United States.

Prior to health care tech, Tae Young started (and still owns) Blue Books Media, a Seoul-based publishing company that introduces industry leaders well-known in the English-speaking world to the Korean market. All of the books he published have been placed in the TOP 100 business book rankings in the country after release, and one he personally translated and published was ranked the #1 self-help book in the country and a TOP 3 national bestseller.

Tae Young is also a Founding Director of the Yoonjae Lee Foundation for Environmental Studies, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit set up in honor of his late friend and college roommate who was a passionate inventor and scholar of environmental studies and technology tackling climate change. The Foundation aims to provide scholarships to the next generation of scholars dedicated to solving the climate crisis.

A Seoul native raised in southern California, Tae Young received his Bachelor of Arts from New York University and now lives in New York.