Han named new head of Invest Korea

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency named financial expert Han Ki-won on Monday, commissioner of Invest Korea, the agency’s foreign investment promotion arm.

The 53-year-old is highly experienced in the investment field, and is proficient in Korean, English and Japanese, KOTRA said.

“We rarely get a candidate who suits the post better than he does,” a KOTRA spokesperson said. “He had a 10-year investment banking career in Japan and another 15 years in Europe and Asia. Han is a top-notch specialist in investment banking.”

The appointee graduated with his bachelor’s degree in political economics from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, where he began his career at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. in 1986.

He served 12 years in the U.K. as the director general of the U.K. Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. and as the managing director of both DC Advisory Partners and Daiwa Capital Markets in London. He also headed Daiwa Securities’ Seoul operations in Korea as managing director.

“Attracting foreign capital investment greatly contributes to raising the employment rate, advancing industrial structure and the government’s green growth slogan,” the new commissioner said in a press release. “I will make full use of my 25 years of investment banking experience to revitalize foreign investment, which is currently depressed.”

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)