Biography
Hungsoo Samuel Kim, a Korean national, is the Co-founder and President of the Center for Asia Leadership Initiatives. Passionate about nurturing and empowering talents in Asia, he has been actively engaging various stakeholders in developing and running over 25 programs in more than 22 countries in Asia to help emerging leaders explore opportunities to be socially responsible in facing the region’s complex challenges.
These programs fall under the Center’s four main initiatives, namely the Asia Leadership Trek, a public diplomacy arm for scholars at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Fletcher; the Asia Leadership Institute, a leadership capacity-building arm; the Acumen Case Center, a research and content development arm; and Acumen Publishing, a publication arm. Hungsoo oversees these initiatives, along with a team of 20 comprising Faculty and Teaching Fellows from Harvard and Stanford University, and administrators at the main office in Boston, U.S., and the Asian regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
As part of his continuous endeavor toward grooming leaders of tomorrow, Hungsoo recently joined the Asia Future Institute, a Seoul-based policy and leadership think tank, as Executive Director to instill in Korean and Northeast Asian talents the drive and passion to create positive social change through effective leadership. He prides himself on accelerating efforts to reach out to all 48 countries in Asia by 2022.
Hungsoo’s areas of research and training, among others, include ‘Negotiation and Mediation,’ ‘Adaptive Leadership,’ ‘Persuasion and Influence,’ and ‘Creative Confidence.’ To date, some 35,000 burgeoning and established leaders from the government, non-profits, and corporate world in Asia have benefited from these programs.
Before establishing the Center, Hungsoo worked for 12 years in varying sectors from strategy consulting and social entrepreneurship to international development, politics, and government. He has also served as a policy aide in the United Nations in New York representing Korea, and as a project analyst at UNESCO in Paris.
He currently sits on the board of two non-profit organizations, and has served as a visiting fellow at the Asia Center at Harvard University and at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Hungsoo holds a Master's of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Masters in International Cooperation from the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University; and completed his undergraduate studies with two majors in U.S. and International Law, and International Politics with a minor in Economics from Handong University.
Previously, Hungsoo was the editor of seven books, namely ‘Rethinking Asia 1: Education and Innovation,’ ‘Rethinking Asia 2: Entrepreneurship and Economic Development,’ ‘Rethinking Asia 3: Social and Political Change,’ ‘Finding the Leaders in Us: New Goals for the Future,’ ‘Redefining Success: Learning to Lead for Change,’ ‘Next Generation Leadership: Empower Youth to Shape the Future of Asia,’ and ‘Leaders in Development: Enhancing Your Leadership Effectiveness in a Changing World.’
These programs fall under the Center’s four main initiatives, namely the Asia Leadership Trek, a public diplomacy arm for scholars at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Fletcher; the Asia Leadership Institute, a leadership capacity-building arm; the Acumen Case Center, a research and content development arm; and Acumen Publishing, a publication arm. Hungsoo oversees these initiatives, along with a team of 20 comprising Faculty and Teaching Fellows from Harvard and Stanford University, and administrators at the main office in Boston, U.S., and the Asian regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
As part of his continuous endeavor toward grooming leaders of tomorrow, Hungsoo recently joined the Asia Future Institute, a Seoul-based policy and leadership think tank, as Executive Director to instill in Korean and Northeast Asian talents the drive and passion to create positive social change through effective leadership. He prides himself on accelerating efforts to reach out to all 48 countries in Asia by 2022.
Hungsoo’s areas of research and training, among others, include ‘Negotiation and Mediation,’ ‘Adaptive Leadership,’ ‘Persuasion and Influence,’ and ‘Creative Confidence.’ To date, some 35,000 burgeoning and established leaders from the government, non-profits, and corporate world in Asia have benefited from these programs.
Before establishing the Center, Hungsoo worked for 12 years in varying sectors from strategy consulting and social entrepreneurship to international development, politics, and government. He has also served as a policy aide in the United Nations in New York representing Korea, and as a project analyst at UNESCO in Paris.
He currently sits on the board of two non-profit organizations, and has served as a visiting fellow at the Asia Center at Harvard University and at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Hungsoo holds a Master's of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Masters in International Cooperation from the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University; and completed his undergraduate studies with two majors in U.S. and International Law, and International Politics with a minor in Economics from Handong University.
Previously, Hungsoo was the editor of seven books, namely ‘Rethinking Asia 1: Education and Innovation,’ ‘Rethinking Asia 2: Entrepreneurship and Economic Development,’ ‘Rethinking Asia 3: Social and Political Change,’ ‘Finding the Leaders in Us: New Goals for the Future,’ ‘Redefining Success: Learning to Lead for Change,’ ‘Next Generation Leadership: Empower Youth to Shape the Future of Asia,’ and ‘Leaders in Development: Enhancing Your Leadership Effectiveness in a Changing World.’
