Business & Economics
Two economies. One engine of innovation.
The premier nonpartisan forum for U.S.–Korea economic engagement. As a new generation of investment and innovation moves between our two countries, we convene the policymakers, executives, investors, and founders turning partnership into prosperity for both.
Partnership is the strategy. Innovation is the result.
The Korea Society was founded to strengthen the ties between the American and Korean people. Our Business & Economics programs carry that mission into the boardroom, the capital markets, and the innovation economy — where the alliance is now being built as much as it is defended.
This is the most consequential moment in the economic relationship in a generation. Under the U.S.–Korea strategic trade and investment framework, Korea has committed $350 billion to American industry, including $150 billion directed at revitalizing U.S. shipbuilding. The remaining commitment reaches into semiconductors and artificial intelligence, batteries and critical minerals, energy and biotechnology — the sectors that will determine both nations' competitiveness for decades.
These are not transactions. They are shipyards, fabs, plants, laboratories, and supply chains taking root in American communities from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest, built by companies that will hire American workers, train American engineers, and partner with American firms. And the exchange runs both ways: American capital, technology, research, and market access make Korean industry stronger in turn.
Two allies, each better off because of the other. That is the story our programs convene around.
Four flagship initiatives.
Each convenes a distinct community — policymakers and corporate executives, investors and entrepreneurs, academics and financial leaders. We hold conversations off the record when candor requires it, and on the record when the discussion belongs to the public.
Flagship Initiative
U.S.–ROK New Economic Paradigm
Our flagship policy and industry convening. Each program brings thought leaders and decision-makers together to examine the forces reshaping both economies — trade and industrial policy, the $350 billion investment framework, and the strategic industries at its center, from semiconductors and AI to shipbuilding, energy, and critical minerals. The emphasis is practical: where the opportunities are, what the obstacles are, and how both countries move forward together.
Flagship Initiative
Startup Scene: Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow
Year-round programming on entrepreneurship and innovation across the U.S. and Korean ecosystems, spanning first-time founders to serial operators. The initiative culminates in an annual conference and a competition that puts emerging entrepreneurs in front of investors and executives who can back them. Two of the world's most inventive economies, one talent network.
Flagship Initiative
Leadership Interview Series
A digital conversation series with the executives, policy leaders, and cultural figures shaping the relationship. Each interview goes beyond the headlines to the experience, judgment, and conviction behind the decisions — on economics, policy, technology, society, and culture.
Flagship Initiative
Global Financial Leaders Forum
An annual conference presented in collaboration with MaeKyung Media Group and the Korea Finance Society, bringing together leading bankers, investors, and financial policymakers to examine global market trends, cross-border capital flows, and the bilateral initiatives shaping financial cooperation. As record investment moves between the two markets, this is the room where the capital side of the partnership is worked out.
A year of convenings.
Programming spanned flagship forums, closed-door roundtables, and public conversations connecting leaders and innovators from both countries.
3
Flagship forums, each anchored by a keynote and panel discussions
2
Exclusive executive roundtables
6
Fireside chats
2
Lectures
3
Standalone panel discussions
From dialogue to partnership to prosperity.
Innovation, accelerated.
Semiconductors, AI, advanced manufacturing, energy, and biotechnology advance faster when the people building them are in the same room. We put them there.
Investment, understood.
Historic capital is moving between our two countries. Our programs give executives, investors, and policymakers the clarity to deploy it well — and the relationships to deploy it together.
Emerging talent, elevated.
Founders and early-career leaders share the stage with the executives and investors who can open the next door. The next generation of the partnership is in the room, not waiting outside it.
Communities, connected.
Our programs build durable professional networks across the Pacific — relationships that continue long after the room clears, in both countries and across American communities where Korean industry is putting down roots.
Two nations, each made stronger by what they build with the other.