Audit & Governance Committee Seung-Hee Nah (Member of the Board of Directors) Seung Hee, until her retirement in 2009, spent 23 years at the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Ms. Nah analyzed and processed new investment projects in East Asia in the mid-1990s, coordinated IFC’s response to the 1998 financial crisis in Korea and formulated the Health and Education Department’s development strategy for East Asia. She also worked on the IFC’s private university initiative in Cambodia and managed work-out cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Mexico, and Egypt. Ms. Nah is currently Chairperson of the Board of Directors of KASM (Korean American Sharing Movement). Seung Hee holds an MBA and a BBA from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
External Programs Committee
Peter Drysdale Peter Drysdale is Emeritus Professor of Economics and a Visiting Fellow in the Crawford School of Economics and Government at The Australian National University. He is Head of Australia’s East Asia Forum. He is widely recognised as the leading intellectual architect of APEC. He is recipient of the Asia Pacific Prize, the Weary Dunlop Award, the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Neck Ribbon, the Australian Centenary Medal and he is a member of the Order of Australia. Peter used to oversee Australia's economic training programs for North Koreans under 35 in the early 2000s.
Manu Bhaskaran Manu is principal and CEO in Centennial Asia Advisors, a strategic advisor on policy and corporate issues. Manu spent 20 years analyzing political and economic trends in Asia, first for the Singapore Ministry of Defense in the area of regional security and then for 12 years as Chief Economist and Chief Strategist for Asia of SG Investment Bank, the international investment banking arm of Societe Generale. He is a frequent speaker on Asian issues at the World Economic Forum and similar events. Although Mr Bhaskaran left service with the Singapore government in 1989, he has continued to participate in several governmental initiatives. He is also on the board of a listed Singapore government-owned company and is a Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He has also served as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, a Singapore think tank. Mr Bhaskaran has a MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a B.A. in economics from Cambridge University.
Finance Committee
John Y. Kim (Member of the Board of Directors) Prior to his current role as Managing Partner at Amasia Associates, John served as Senior Vice President at Mercuria Energy Group and as Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in Singapore. Before moving to the Lion City, John was a Fund Manager at Korean National Investments in Seoul. He started his career in technology, first founding music internet and e-consulting companies before joining Merck & Co as a System Specialist. John also spent time as a professional musician, touring across the United States and recording with top artists in Korea including Bobby Kim, Drunken Tiger and Yang Dong Geun. John also received a platinum record for his album contribution with Grammy award winner Brandy. He is an award winning public speaker, published author and regular television contributor. John is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the School of Engineering.
Namuh Rhee (Member of the Board of Directors) Namuh Rhee is a Singaporean citizen and CFO of Taurus Investment, a Korea-based investment bank. He was the former Managing Director for Asia Pacific at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Prior to joining BOA-ML, he was a founding partner of Rhee Capital, an Asia-focused hedge fund, non-executive director and Member of the Board of Directors at Citibank Korea, Managing Director at Samsung Securities and Vice-President at JP Morgan. Namuh has an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University.
Matthew Hosford Matthew Hosford is a Managing Director in Banco Santander Asia. His functional role is that of Chief Risk Officer for the Asia Pacific region. He oversees all aspects of credit risk, market risk and liquidity risk for the Asia operations of the group in the region. Prior to his current position, he served as a Director in the Financial Institutions Risk Management Advisory Practice in PricewaterhouseCoopers (Hong Kong / Beijing) where he was involved in advisory projects primarily focused on risk management and governance matters for banks in China/Hong Kong, Korea and Indonesia. Mr. Hosford holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.
North Korea Analysis Committee
Katharina Zellweger Katharina Zellweger has been the Pantech Fellow in Korean Studies at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University since 2011. She has over 30 years of field experience in Hong Kong, China and North Korea. Zellweger lived and worked in Pyongyang for five years (2006-2011) as the North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Before joining SDC, Zellweger worked for almost 30 years for the Catholic agency Caritas in Hong Kong where she developed pioneering Caritas involvement in China and in North Korea. Zellweger received the Bishop Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award from a South Korean foundation established to promote social justice, and the Dame of St. Gregory the Great from the Vatican for her work in North Korea.
Jean-Jacques Grauhar Jean-Jacques is the Secretary General of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea (EUCCK) and co-President of the Europe-Korea Foundation(EKF). He has been living in Seoul for the last 15 years and was previously working in Pyongyang for 7 years as a business consultant. In 2002, Jean-Jacques and Park Geun Hye visited Pyongyang as head of an Europe-Korea Foundation delegation. He is especially interested in supporting North Korea's economic integration into the global economy.
Andrei Lankov Andrei is a Professor at Kookmin University and is considered to be a foremost expert on North Korea in Western Countries. He has written articles for the Council of Foreign Relations' Foreign Affairs magazine and published several books on North Korea.
Curtis Melvin A founder of NKeconwatch and doctoral candidate in economics at George Mason University, Curtis is a pioneer in the use of Google Maps in the study of North Korea. He brings with him an encyclopedic knowledge of North Korean institutions which aids us in our survey work.
Tony Michell Tony is a Seoul-based British entrepreneur and pioneer for early Korean development with over 28 years of experience in economic, political and business developments in North East Asia and expertise in corporate restructuring for bankrupt enterprises. He is the founder of Euro-Asian Business Consultancy (EABC) and Korea Associates Business Consulting (KABC), advising foreign companies on business strategy for both Koreas and the region. In the 1990s, Dr. Michell was awarded the Order of Friendship by the DPRK government for his humanitarian efforts in persuading a large pharmaceutical manufacturer to provide essential medical supplies during the period of hardship.