• Seoh Geun Woo
• Phone : +82-2-3705-6329
• Email : gwseoh@kif.re.kr
• Research area : Money and Banking / Corporate Restructuring

Education

• Seoul National University, Ph. D. in Economics
• Seoul National University, Master in Economics
• Seoul National University, Bachelor in Art

Experience

• Hana Bank, Hana Financial Group, Hana Institue of Finance, CFO & Deputy President, Senior Advisor
• Financial Supervisory Commission (Government of Korea), Director General, Corporate Restructuring Bureau
• Korea Investors' Services, Manager, Credit Rating Division and Research Division

Geun Woo Seoh, Senior Advisor of Korea Institute of Finance, has been involved in the financial markets, economic research, and public policy throughout his career.

Mr. Seoh began his career in finance at Korea Investors’Service (KIS) in 1988. He joined KIS, as an analyst and economist, and then became a manager of the Credit Rating Division and Research Division. He analyzed the financial and operational status of major companies; provided financial consulting and valuation services for major M&A transactions; and conducted research on macro-economic and financial market trends.

Mr. Seoh joined the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) in 1995, left KIF in 2005, and re-joined KIF in 2010. His major area of research was non-bank financial institutions and the capital markets. He became the head of Non-bank and Capital Market Team in 2002. During this time, he conducted research on non-bank financial institutions and the financial market trends, and consulted the Ministry of Finance and Economy and Office of the President on legal and regulatory issues of the non-bank financial sector. In 2004, he became the director of research at the KIF.

As a research fellow of the KIF, Mr. Seoh worked for the Korean government from December 1997 to June 2001. He became the head of the Corporate Restructuring Team at the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) in April 1998, and was promoted as Director General of the Corporate Restructuring Bureau in 1999. He also served as Senior Counselor to the chairman of the FSC in 2001. During his term of service at the FSC, Mr. Seoh led and coordinated the corporate sector restructuring effort of several government agencies, focusing on the improvement of the business and financial structures, corporate governance of the chaebols (large conglomerates); and he formulated and implemented policy measures to counter the systemic risk caused by the over-leveraged condition of the chaebols during the financial crisis.

Before he joined Hana Bank in March 2005, he worked as a member of the Bank’s board of directors. As CFO of Hana Bank and Hana Financial Group, he was in charge of Strategic Planning Division, Financial Planning Division and Risk Management Division.

Mr. Seoh graduated from Seoul National University in 1983. He earned his master’s degree in economics from Seoul National University in 1985, and earned his Ph. D in economics from Seoul National University in 1995. His focus of study was money & banking, and the title of his doctoral dissertation was “A Study on the Role of Call Market Dealers for the Reduction of Call Rate Volatility.”
Mr. Seoh was born in Korea in 1959, is married, and has two children.

Publication

• The Money Markets in Korea: Current Issues and Perspectives, KIF, Nov. 2004
• Relationship Lending in SME Finance, APEC International Conference on SME Financing in the Asia-Pacific Region, Nov. 2003
• The Appropriateness of Regulatory Reform in Korea, Korean Enterprise Institute, July 2002
• A Study on the Development of the Factoring Finance in Korea, KIF, Feb. 1998
• A Study on the Efficiency of Credit Cards Industry, KIF, Apr.1997
• A Study on the Reform of the Financial Institutions Specialized in Lending, KIF, Sep. 1997
• Current Status and Improvement Plan of the Credit Information System in Korea, KIF, Dec.1996