ABOUT
I was born in Japan as a third-generation Korean immigrant and raised here until I was sixteen. Because of that upbringing, I’ve always seen Japan as both my mother country and a foreign land at the same time.
That perspective led me naturally to dream of becoming a diplomat from my early teens. At sixteen I moved to California by myself and pursued college and law degrees. Ten years later I found myself practicing law at Sullivan & Cromwell — not quite a diplomat, but close. I advised the Japanese government and quasi-governmental entities on tapping U.S. capital market.
By that time, my Korean citizenship meant a traditional diplomatic path was closed, and I wasn’t ready to pursue Japanese or American citizenship either. After several years of legal practice and a brief stint at a private equity firm, I left to become an entrepreneur — driven by curiosity to step out of a comfortable elite environment and explore the wider world.
Over the years, I’ve founded tech startups, did angel investments, taken on shareholder activism, and served as a public company CEO - all in Japan.
Today my professional work centers on serving as Country Representative and Chief-of-Staff for global startups and foreign enterprises entering the Japanese market.
Most recently, I have developed a focused interest in Japan’s expanding defense and dual-use technology sector, particularly the emerging supply-chain requirements driven by rise of technological warfare in Ukraine and shifting geopolitical conditions across the Asia-Pacific.
I regularly share open-source analysis on these developments on 𝕏
CAREER
2001
Goldman Sachs
2003
JP Morgan
2008
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
2013
Unison Capital
2014
Entrepreneur