Mirae Asset chief honored with AIB award

Mirae Asset Financial Group Chairman Park Hyeon-joo has been recognized by the Academy of International Business for expanding the financial service provider's scope of business on a global level.

Park received the International Executive of the Year Award from the AIB on July 3. He was the first Asian financier to receive the prestigious award. He was the second South Korean entrepreneur to win the award after SK Group's late Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, the father of the current Chairman Chey Tae-won, in 1995.

The award is given to individuals who have improved the performance and reputation of their respective firms on the international stage, according to the AIB. Among the previous recipients are Akio Morita of Sony Group in 1983, Peter Sutherland of Goldman Sachs in 1998 and Muhtar Kent of Coca-Cola in 2013.

"Reflecting on inspiring global businesses led by adventurous founders in Korea, I found myself pondering, 'Why not in finance?'" Park said in his keynote speech at the annual AIB gathering held at a Seoul hotel.

"I then launched fund strategies covering Asia, (including) China and India. This shift was crucial for me to move from focusing solely on the domestic market to developing a more global perspective," he said.

The group's asset managing arm Mirae Asset Global Investments was the first among its local peers to expand its footprint to the overseas market in 2003. After over two decades, the asset manager manages around 340 trillion won ($247 billion) across 16 regions, including the US, Vietnam, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, India, Japan, China, Canada, Columbia, Australia and Hong Kong.

Through an aggressive mergers and acquisition push, the asset manager has sized up its exchange-traded fund business to roughly 175 trillion won, larger than the 155 trillion won local ETF market.

Mirae Asset rose as a global ETF operator through a series of takeover deals, including Canada’s Horizons ETFs in 2011, US Global X in 2018 and Australia’s ETF Securities in 2022.

It has bolstered its presence as the top 12th ETF provider on the global market. Its US-based ETF subsidiary Global X’s assets under management, which stood at $10 billion at the time of the takeover in 2018, has jumped up by five-fold to over $50 billion in the past six years.

Recognizing the importance of incorporating artificial intelligence technology in its services, Mirae Asset Financial Group aims to step up its AI push in the coming years.

Mirae Asset plans to expand its AI reach through its new US subsidiary Wealthspot. It has acquired Stockspot, an Australian robo-adviser specialist management company, as well.

“Artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful potential solution to transform the future of finance,” Park said in the keynote speech.

“Our goal is to implement an intelligent organization-wide AI platform while being committed to ensuring transparent and responsible adoption of this powerful technology,” he said.