The Flow of Ink and Color: A Journey of Korean Ink Painting by Sunglim Kim

In this lecture, Professor Sunglim Kim explores the history of ink painting in Korea, and examines its origin and development, both in the past and the present. |
Hemyeong Kim Seongheui Constellation Links | 

In this lecture, Professor Sunglim Kim explores the history of ink painting in Korea, and examines its origin and development, both in the past and the present.

 

The Flow of Ink and Color: A Journey of Korean Ink Painting by Sunglim Kim

Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | 6:30 PM (EDT)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

 

Sunglim Kim is an associate professor of Korean art and culture at Dartmouth College. She specializes in the material and consumer culture of the late Joseon period and women artists in modern and contemporary Korea.


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Korean Peninsula Update with the NK News Team

Join us for a discussion on the latest developments in Korea, including domestic politics north and south of the 38th parallel, inter-Korean relations, US-North Korea developments, Russia’s role, and more, featuring team members from NK News, including Chad O’Carroll, Chief Executive Officer of Korea Risk Group, Jeongmin Kim, Lead Correspondent at NK News and Editorial Director at Korea Pro, Colin Zwirko, Senior Analytic Correspondent for NK News, and Shreyas Reddy, Lead Correspondent at NK News. This program is moderated by The Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado.

This program is made possible by the generous support of our individual and corporate members and the Korea Foundation.
 

 

Korean Peninsula Update with the NK News Team

Monday, March 17, 2025 | 12 PM (EDT)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

 

Chad O’Carroll is the founder of NK News/NK Pro and related holding company Korea Risk Group. In addition to being the group’s CEO, O’Carroll is a frequent writer and commentator about the Koreas, having written about the two nations since 2010. He has visited the DPRK multiple times, worked and lived in Washington, D.C. with a focus on peninsula issues, and lived in the ROK since 2016.

 

 

Jeongmin Kim is a Correspondent at NK News and Editorial Director at KOREA PRO, based in Seoul. Kim covers inter-Korean relations and North and South Korean foreign and military affairs. Kim has covered the 2022 ROK presidential election on the ground, and prior to joining NK News, she worked for the CSIS Korea Chair in Washington D.C. and Reuters news agency’s Seoul bureau.

 

 

Shreyas Reddy is the Lead Correspondent at NK News, based in Seoul. He previously worked as a researcher at BBC Monitoring, where his work focused on news and key people and organizations from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

 

 

Colin Zwirko is a Senior Analytic Correspondent for NK News based in Seoul. He joined the company in 2018 after receiving a master’s degree in international security and foreign policy from South Korea’s Yonsei University.

Women in Food Business

As the food and hospitality industry continues to evolve and grow, the Asian faces in it have also become more visible. Despite the progress, there are still long-standing obstacles that women face both in and out of kitchen and business culture. Meet Korean-American women running their own successful food and hospitality business and contributing their perspective and approaches to proactively change the industry.

In this conversation, chef and writer Caroline Choe speaks with 4 brand and establishment owners and proprietors based in the NYC / NJ area on their experiences: Hannah Bae of Noona’s Ice Cream, Julia Choi-Rodriguez of Vesta Chocolate, Alice Jun of Hana Makgeolli, Jee Kim of 8282. Also joining will be hospitality lawyer Vivian Chen, who represents many businesses and brands throughout New York City.

 

Women in Food Business

Thursday, March 6, 2025 | 6:30 PM (EST)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

 

Hannah Bae is a native of Queens, New York where she grew up among creative Asian-American culinary delights, and developed a particular affinity for American ice cream. After working as a pastry chef and in operations management, Bae founded Noona’s Ice Cream in 2016 after winning NYC’s annual ice cream contest held by Hester Street Fair. All Noona’s recipes celebrate Asian American stories and global food experiences with others.

 
 

Vivian Chen started her career as a corporate attorney before starting a law firm, Chen and Lahey LLP, where she served as “in-house counsel on demand” for small to mid-size businesses and advised high net worth individuals. She has also worked as the Chief Operating Officer of LUCKYRICE where she identified her passion for food, the importance of experiential marketing, structural organization and operations. Through her private practice, Vivian Chen Legal Consulting PLLC, Chen volunteers pro-bono to help many former and new hospitality clients get through the pandemic. Additionally, she was the lawyer that formed Heart of Dinner, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that started at the beginning of the pandemic which donates food to the elderly Asian American community in New York and the outer boroughs. She is the lawyer to over 60 prominent restaurants and chefs nationwide including Atomix, Atoboy, Naro, Nom Wah, Jungsik, SEA, Fish Cheeks, Bangkok Supper Club, Kimbap Lab, Kochi, and Mari to name a few. In 2024, she launched a hospitality management company called Chinatown Hospitality Group.

 
 

Julia Choi-Rodriguez is a long-time creator in the culinary world, first working in advertising on major food brands, then as a pastry chef for top restaurants who turned food stylist. After working as an account executive for major brands such as Baskin Robbins, Quiznos and Bonefish grill, she enrolled in the baking and pastry program at Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and upon graduation worked for a few years as a pastry chef at top New York City restaurants including Gramercy Tavern, Jean-Georges, and Bouchon Bakery. From there she decided to branch out on her own into food styling by starting her own business, Baby One More Bite, whose clients included some of the most recognizable brands including, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Guinness, KRAFT, and Food Network. Julia founded Vesta Chocolate, a place where small batch craft chocolate can be applied to everyday goods, with her husband Roger.

 
 

Alice Jun is the founder and brewer of Hana Makgeolli, the first traditional Korean rice wine brewery in the United States, based in Brooklyn, NY. A passionate advocate for authentic Korean food and drink, Alice launched Hana Makgeolli in September 2020 as a way to honor and expand on the homebrewing techniques passed down by her father. Her work is rooted in the belief that traditionally crafted Korean sool (alcoholic beverages) possesses unparalleled depth—in its history, artistry, and flavor—deserving recognition as a world-class category. Through brewing and education, Alice continues to inspire a deeper appreciation for the cultural and culinary heritage of Korean sool.

 
 

Jee Young Kim is a dynamic professional with a background in brand development and hospitality. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, where she specialized in venture capital and real estate, and a B.A. in Art History & French from New York University. Jee is the Co-Founder and Director of Operations at Lion Hospitality LLC, where she launched 8282, a modern Korean dining restaurant that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2023 and 2024. A dedicated advocate for social responsibility, Jee played a key role in expanding employment opportunities for disabled individuals within her family company, contributing to its recognition as an Outstanding Firm for Disabled Employment for 15 consecutive years. With a passion for projects that create meaningful impact, Jee continues to work at the intersection of business, real estate, hospitality, and social good.

 

About the Moderator:

 

Caroline Choe is a chef, artist, teacher and writer based in New York City, and is a proud daughter of Korean American immigrants. After a long career in education, she continued her journey into a culinary and creative career. She recently published her debut cookbook, Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides, which was named as one of the 26 Best Cookbooks for 2024 by Serious Eats. She is also the founder of Create & Plate, a business devoted to helping create community through arts and food education. Both she and her work have been featured in Food & Wine, NPR, Food52, Glamour, NY1, NBC’s Today Show, and Good Morning America.


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Author Talks: Lee Chang-dong

Author Photo: Oh Jung-mi

“Lee Chang-dong is a master storyteller of any form. This collection of his early works gives a deep, stark look at human stories from a Korea not too long ago. A gift to read.” —Steven Yeun, Academy Award nominee for Best Actor

Lee Chang-dong is one of South Korea’s most celebrated and influential directors. Known internationally for his films Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Poetry, Lee’s work is characterized by his meticulous eye for detail and his exploration of social issues and complex characters. Before turning to screenwriting and directing, Lee began his career as a writer of short fiction and novels. SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES, translated into English for the first time by Yoosup Chang and Heinz Insu Fenkl, is a brilliant and unsettling collection that investigates themes of love, injustice, betrayal, and terror—on both an intimate and national scale.

Originally published in Korea in the 1980s, and drawn from the author’s own experiences, the stories in SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES are haunting and deeply moving. As he does in his films, Lee dives deep into the mundane and the quiet, revealing our collective underlying pain, loneliness, and profound longing. In stunning prose, Lee moves swiftly between explorations of conflicts between family and memory, the powerful and the vulnerable, the rich and the poor, and conformists and rebels. The stories are visceral, contemplative, and thought-provoking. How is family memory preserved? How does danger and violence reverberate across generations?

In this episode of Author Talks, Lee Chang-dong discusses the English translation of his short stories.

 

Author Talks: Lee Chang-dong

Thursday, February 27, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


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Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity Michelle Jungmin Bang with Kathleen Kim

Author Photo © Phoebe Miu

As a Korean-American, Michelle Jungmin Bang grew up in a family of doctors, then spent years traveling, researching, and training in nutrition and preventative care to write and illustrate Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity.

The book follows one person’s journey to heal. This book is an homage to Michelle’s Korean heritage and two decades of living in Asia. In its pages, readers will find an inspiring man who reversed his type 2 diabetes and regained his vision; free divers who continue to live strong, foraging and protecting the ocean through their 90s; Buddhist nuns who unlock the secrets of temple food; health patterns Michelle discovered across China, Japan, and Korea; and steamy and ice cold and budget-friendly sauna house methods that match the best luxury spas in the world. Embracing new science while preserving the old ways of living – eating local, eating in season, eating real food, and reconnecting to nature – could solve many pressing issues our modern world faces today on chronic disease, climate change, and food waste.

In her conversation with Kathleen Kim, Bang discusses her book Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity and reflects on how we can eat for healing, live sustainably, reconnect with nature, form deeper relationships with the Korean concept of jeong (the warm, invisible connection between loved ones and places), and more.

 

Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness, and Longevity
Michelle Jungmin Bang with Kathleen Kim

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | 6:30 PM (EST)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

Michelle Jungmin Bang is an award-winning Korean American eco-entrepreneur, Chivas Venture Social Impact Fellow, and Harvard Business School graduate born into a family of doctors. She is a preventative care expert, speaker, and the author of Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity. She is known for translating research into strategies that promote a radical shift in healthcare that embraces self-care or preventative care, which blends new science and old wisdom. Michelle is passionate about driving social impact and serves as a board director and founding member of various mission-driven organizations, most recently GrowNYC, an environmental non-profit focused on food access, agriculture, and green spaces. She lives with her family in Hong Kong and New York City and has been invited to speak at organizations, including Google.

 

About the Moderator:

 

Kathleen Kim is a NYC-based puppeteer and voice artist as well as an Emmy-nominated producer for her work on Sesame Street’s AAPI special “See Us Coming Together,” which introduced Ji-Young — the show’s first Asian-American Muppet character in its 50+ year history which Kim has the great honor of performing. Other performance credits include Saturday Night Live, Awkwafina’s Nora From Queens, The Today Show, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Helpsters on Apple TV+, and Mo Willems’ The Pigeon Explains.


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Challenges for Korea’s Democracy

Join us for a discussion about fallout from the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s Martial Law declaration, his subsequent impeachment and the presidential transition in Seoul, challenges to South Korea’s democracy, and implications for the U.S.-Korea relationship and Korea’s foreign relations, with Kelly Kasulis Cho, Washington Post Breaking News Reporter, Andrew Yeo, senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation Chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies, and Daniel Sneider, lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford. This program is moderated by policy director Jonathan Corrado and program officer Chelsie Alexandre.

This program is made possible by the generous support of our individual and corporate members and the Korea Foundation.

 

 

Challenges for Korea’s Democracy

Thursday, February 13, 2025 | 8 AM (EST)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

 

Kelly Kasulis Cho is a breaking news reporter and editor at The Washington Post’s Seoul hub. She has been reporting on North and South Korea for eight years, since the days of former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment and the whirlwind of tension and diplomacy between President-elect Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. She has covered the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the coronavirus pandemic, South Korean elections, the tragic 2022 Itaewon Halloween crowd crush, the stabbing of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, the 2025 Jeju Air plane crash and more. She also recently covered the final moments of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange’s years-long legal battle and his path to freedom from a U.S. courthouse in Saipan. Previously, Kelly was a staff editor at The New York Times, the managing editor of NK News and NK Pro and a freelance foreign correspondent covering the Koreas.

 

 

Daniel C. Sneider is a lecturer in international policy at Stanford’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy and a lecturer in East Asian Studies at Stanford. His own research is focused on current U.S. foreign and national security policy in Asia and on the foreign policy of Japan and Korea. Since 2017, he has been based partly in Tokyo where he is working on a diplomatic history of the creation and management of the U.S. security alliances with Japan and South Korea during the Cold War. Sneider contributes regularly to the leading Japanese publication Toyo Keizai and is a Non-resident Distinguished Fellow at the Korea Economic Institute where he writes regularly for the Peninsula blog. Sneider is the former Associate Director for Research at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford and directed the Divided Memories and Reconciliation project on wartime historical memory in East Asia. Prior to coming to Stanford, Sneider was a long-time foreign correspondent. Sneider served as national/foreign editor of the Mercury News. From 1990 to 1994, he was the Moscow bureau chief of the Christian Science Monitor, covering the end of Soviet Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. From 1985 to 1990, he was Tokyo correspondent for the Monitor, covering Japan and Korea. Prior to that he was a correspondent in India, covering South and Southeast Asia. Sneider has a BA in East Asian history from Columbia University and an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

 

 

Andrew Yeo is a senior fellow and the SK-Korea Foundation Chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies. He is also a professor of politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Yeo is co-editor of the forthcoming book “Great Power Competition and Overseas Bases: Chinese, Russian, and American Force Posture in the 21st Century” (Brookings Institution Press, forthcoming). He is also the author or co-editor of five other books including  “Asia’s Regional Architecture: Alliances and Institutions in the Pacific Century” (Stanford University Press, 2019), “State, Society, and Markets in North Korea” (Cambridge University Press 2021), “North Korean Human Rights: Activists and Networks” (Cambridge University Press 2018); “Activists, Alliances, and Anti-U.S. Base Protests” (Cambridge University Press 2011); and “Living in an Age of Mistrust: An Interdisciplinary Study of Declining Trust in Contemporary Society and Politics and How to Get it Back” (Routledge Press 2017). Yeo received his doctorate in government from Cornell University, and bachelor’s in psychology and international studies from Northwestern University.

Breaking Down the US-China Decoupling: Implications for Korea

As the Trump administration accelerates efforts to decouple the US economy from China, mounting tensions are creating new challenges for Korea, forcing it to reassess its strategic position amid growing uncertainty. Staying informed and anticipating future developments is crucial for those navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

Join us for an exclusive, members-only discussion on the evolving US-China economic relationship and its implications for Korea. Moderated by Thomas Byrne, President and CEO of The Korea Society, this session will feature insights from Benjamin Qiu, US-China business expert and NYC-based lawyer, and Kenneth Wilcox, author of The China Business Conundrum and former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank. Together, they will provide a candid assessment of how the US-China economic dynamic may unfold under the Trump administration.

Co-hosted with the Asian Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar Association, this event offers a unique opportunity for members of both organizations to engage in this timely and critical conversation.

*Networking Lunch Event- Light Refreshments Included.


Co-hosted by
Asian Affairs Committee of


 

Click Here to Attend in Person

 

Breaking Down the US-China Decoupling: Implications for Korea

Friday, February 7, 2025 | 12 PM

IN-PERSON: Members Only

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 


ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Benjamin Qiu is a New York-based lawyer and China business expert. He co-chairs the Asian Affairs Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and he is a partner of Elliott Kwok Levine Jaroslaw Neils LLP. He is an advisor to London-based China Strategic Risks Institute. He previously headed venture capital practice at international law firms and in-house at a VC fund in China and Hong Kong, and he taught private equity and intellectual property at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a former board member of Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club, and his opinion pieces have been published in Wall Street Journal, Nikkei Asia, and New York Law Journal. Benjamin is admitted to practice law in the State of California and Washington D.C.

Kenneth P Wilcox worked at Silicon Valley Bank from 1990 through 2019. From 2001 through 2010 he served as CEO. In that role, he successfully pursued a strategy of global expansion, while remaining focused on the group’s core niches of technology, life sciences, venture capital and premium wineries.

In 2011 he and his wife moved to China, where he both founded and served as CEO of SSVB, an SVB-lookalike in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Suzhou. At the end of 2014 he returned to Silicon Valley. He remained on the board of the bank in China, as Vice-Chair, till the end of 2019.

For the past ten years he’s been Treasurer of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and Chair of the Credit Committee of a venture debt fund in London serving all of Europe.

Mr. Wilcox was Chairman of the Board of the Asia Society of Northern California, and a member of the Advisory Board of the 21st Century China Center Advisory Board. He is also an adjunct professor and member of the International Advisory Board at Fudan University in Shanghai, and is currently teaching entrepreneurship and leadership at UC Berkeley. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wilcox was a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2006 to 2012.

Mr. Wilcox earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, as well as a PhD in German studies Ohio State University. In January of 2020 he published “Leading Through Culture: How Real Leaders Create Cultures that Motivate People to Achieve Great Things.” His second book, “The China Business Conundrum: Ensure That Win-Win Doesn’t Mean Western Companies Lose Twice” will be published by Wiley in December.


Author Talks: Kim Suhyun & Anton Hur

In a world where it can seem impossible to feel you are ever good enough, and where it’s easy to judge yourself by the unrealistic standards, I Decided to Live as Me offers guidance and encouragement for celebrating yourself and feeling comfortable in your own skin.

Kim Suhyun is a writer and illustrator based in Seoul. In her own life, she realized that her self-esteem was the biggest battle she was facing. Surrounded by friends, co-workers, and especially social media, she couldn’t stop herself from comparing her life to others and measuring her successes against them. Recognizing that this was a dilemma that many people were facing, she decided to write her book in the hopes that it can provide comfort and advice to anyone else who has ever felt the same.

With her charming illustrations and uplifting language, Kim has reached millions of readers who have found inspiration in her journey of self-love. I Decided to Live as Me teaches you that by freeing yourself from the pressure of other people’s expectations, you can focus on what truly matters: living not for anyone else, but for yourself.

In this episode of Author Talks, Kim Suhyun is joined by Anton Hur, who translated I Decided to Live as Me, to discuss her English debut.

 

Author Talks: Kim Suhyun & Anton Hur

Wednesday, February 5, 2025


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speakers:

Kim Suhyun is a writer and illustrator based in Seoul. She loves drawing, so in college she studied design. She describes herself as “thoughtful but not too serious, lighthearted but not shallow.” Her books have sold more than two million copies in Korea, and I Decided to Live as Me is being published around the world in more than 12 languages.

Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity and the translator of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, Baek Sehee’s I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Lee Seong-bok’s Indeterminate Inflorescence, Kyung-Sook Shin’s Violets, and others. He was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a finalist for the National Book Award, and nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He resides in Seoul.


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Korea-US-China Trilateral Relations: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Join us for a discussion on the newly launched book: Korea-US-China Trilateral Relations in the Xi Jinping Era. The authors, CHUNG Duck Koo, Korea’s former Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Energy, and YUN Byung-se, Korea’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, examine Korea-US-China trilateral relations through a strategic triangular lens. The book moves beyond conventional discussions of bilateral ties to provide an in-depth analysis of the complexity, conflict, and economic interdependence characterizing the relationships among these three nations. In the discussion, Minister Chung and Minister Yun also address the new US administration and shifts in Korean politics, offering timely insights to shed light on unfolding events. The moderator for the program is Korea Society president and CEO Thomas Byrne. The book is available for purchase here.

 

Korea-US-China Trilateral Relations: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | 2 PM (EST)


The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 

 


About the Speaker:

 

Chung Duck Koo is a former Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Energy of the Republic of Korea during President Kim Dae-Jung’s administration (1999-2000). He is also the founder of the North East Asia Research Foundation (NEAR Foundation), South Korea’s premier privately-funded independent think-tank, and currently serves as its chairman. Chung embarked on his career as a government official in 1971, dedicating nearly three decades of service. During the onset of the Korean financial crisis, Chung, a Vice Minister of Finance at the time, played a pivotal role in the early resolution of Korea’s liquidity crisis as a chief negotiator with the IMF. After retirement from the cabinet, Chung became a professor at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) at Seoul National University and served as the director of the Seoul National University Center for International Finance. In 2003, Peking University in China invited him as a Distinguished Chair Professor, where he taught Korean Economic Development and Open-Door Policy. In 2005, he served as a visiting professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, where he taught the International Monetary Regime and the future prospects of the yuan. In 2013, he was appointed as a policy advisor at CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). During the early years of Xi Jinping’s first term, the Chinese government recommended that Mr. Chung lead special lectures and academic seminars involving distinguished policymakers, bureaucrats, and high-ranking officials from 18 government departments. Presently, he is based at the Center for Strategies and International Studies (CSIS) as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

 

 

Yun Byung-se served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea from March 2013 until June 2017 (longest serving Foreign Minister after 1981). Prior to that, he served as Deputy National Security Adviser (Senior Secretary) to the President responsible for Korea’s foreign, defense and unification policy and as Senior Coordinator at the National Security Council of the Presidential Office. As a career diplomat with 37 year-long experience, his foreign postings include the United States, the United Nations in New York and Geneva, Singapore and Australia. At the headquarters, he was Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when Ban Ki-moon, former UN Secretary-General, was the Foreign Minister. He graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Law and received a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He was a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) of Sogang University in Seoul from 2009 until early 2013. He is currently Chairman of Seoul International Law Academy (SILA), Co-Chair of REAIM Global Commission(AI), and Chairman of NEAR Global Survey Project. He is also on the board of Korea Peace Foundation and the NEAR Foundation and is affiliated with several global ex-leaders’ forums and projects on international peace and security, non-proliferation and geopolitical risks. His global survey report 2023 on the world order was published in English and in Korean by the NEAR Foundation under the title of “Quo Vadit Mundus: Competing for Order in a Fragmenting World.” He regularly contributes his writings to the Korea JoongAng Daily and the Korea Times and moderates the annual CSIS-JoongAng Conference and other forums frequently.

Tech, Culture, and K-Beauty: Dino’s Playbook for Building MBX

Join us for an exclusive conversation with Hyungseok Dino Ha (hereinafter Dino), Co-Founder and CEO of MBX (formerly Memebox), a visionary multi-brand beauty and personal care company leading the convergence of technology, culture, and K-beauty. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Seoul, Shanghai and Taipei, MBX has established itself as a global leader in the beauty industry, backed by $200 million in venture capital funding. By seamlessly blending data-driven technology with cultural insight, MBX is redefining how K-beauty influences the global beauty landscape.

In this program, Dino will reveal the key moments that shaped his entrepreneurial journey — from his early career at TMON and Tom Ford to his transformative experience in top accelerator programs like Y Combinator and SparkLabs. Learn how he harnessed the global rise of K-beauty and used technology to create a next-generation beauty powerhouse. This conversation offers essential lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, beauty industry enthusiasts, and anyone curious about the dynamic intersection of tech, culture, and K-beauty in building groundbreaking business opportunities.


 

This program is supported by Hanwha Life

 


 

Tech, Culture, and K-Beauty: Dino’s Playbook for Building MBX

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 | 6 PM (EST)

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

 


ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

 

Dino Ha is the founder and CEO of MBX Corp, also known as Memebox, a position he has proudly held for twelve years. Combining engineering expertise with a deep passion for fashion and beauty, Dino is dedicated to building a tech-driven beauty company that aims to revolutionize beauty culture worldwide.

Dino began his academic journey with a degree in Environmental Engineering. His career path took a significant turn when he joined the Army, voluntarily deploying to Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom to combat terrorism. During his military service, Dino met his first American, an encounter that inspired him to pursue a career in the fashion and beauty industry after completing his service.

After his time in the Army, Dino moved to New York to attend the Parsons School of Design. While studying, he joined Tom Ford at the launch of the brand, working for two years in the PR and marketing department. This experience provided him with invaluable insights into the fashion industry’s inner workings and the importance of brand management.

Following his tenure at Tom Ford, Dino returned to Korea to join TMON, an e-commerce startup founded by his friends. At TMON, he led new business initiatives and sales strategies, contributing significantly to the company’s growth and its eventual acquisition by LivingSocial for $300 million. This successful venture fueled Dino’s entrepreneurial spirit and inspired him to establish his own company.

Dino remains enthusiastic about the future of MBX Corp and its ability to deliver K-beauty brands and products to consumers worldwide. MBX currently operates five brands across skincare, color, and haircare categories. The company generates most of its revenue in the US, with products available in retailers such as Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Target, and exports to more than 40 countries globally.


 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR:

 

ShoYoung Shin (Sho) is the Director of Platform at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (ERA). ERA is NYC’s leading tech accelerator for early-stage startups and has made over 365+ investments to date. Sho supports portfolio companies by managing ERA’s robust platform of 1000+ mentors, partnerships, and alumni network. Before joining ERA, Sho was an Immigrant Justice Corps Community Fellow for the MinKwon Center for Community Action, where she represented clients before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as a DOJ partially accredited representative. She is also co-founder and co-director of the Amherst Asian Alumni Network, made up of 1000+ members.