Mr. Kim is the Head of Private Equity and Venture Capital at Hanwha Life Insurance, where he manages the PE/VC portfolio and leads investing in funds and co-investment opportunities. Before joining Hanwha in 2016, Mr. Kim worked at the Corporate and Investment Banking franchise of BNP Paribas Seoul Branch. He began his career in the Investment Banking Division at NH Investment & Securities. Mr. Kim holds a BA in Business Administration from Seoul National University.

Do Young (Derek Kim) is CEO of Kakao Investment, a role he assumed in March 2025, and former CFO of Kolon Mobility Group.

Prior to joining Kolon, he led over 15 years at Samsung Securities as Head of M&A and sector lead for Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) investment banking, where he directed major transactions and strategic advisory mandates across multiple industries in South Korea.

Kim holds an MBA and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Seoul National University.

EC Cho joined CVC in 2021. He is Co-Head of CVC South Korea team and based in Seoul.

Prior to joining, EC was a Director of the investment team at Hahn & Company. He also worked at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology as an R&D Staff Member in the Therapeutic Antibody Group.

EC holds a master's degree in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT and a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

Kihong Bae is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Strong Ventures. He has invested in more than 300 Korean and Korean-American startups, with Strong serving as the very first institutional investor in 240 of them. He likes to make early bets on category leaders and has a deep respect for “cockroach” founders - entrepreneurs who refuse to die, always finding ways to survive and thrive. He strongly believes VCs should work as hard as the founders they back, and he leads by example, working seven days a week.

Loy Song is currently serving as the Head of the Private Market Investment Team at the Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS). At GEPS, he has played a pivotal role in spearheading the pension fund’s "first-ever" global private market investment mandates and pioneering its inaugural Sidecar program, significantly advancing the fund’s global asset allocation strategy. He successfully managed large-scale commitments and co-investments with world-renowned alternative asset managers, including Advent International, Apollo, EQT, Warburg Pincus, Bridgepoint, Triton Partners, and HGGC. His extensive institutional background also includes fixed income sales at Barclays Capital, alongside structured global cross-border investment experiences(inc. infrastructure and real estate) at domestic firms, including Meritz Securities and Korea Investment Management.  He started his career through prestigious early roles and internships at global investment banks and strategic consulting firms, including Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, UBS, McKinsey & Company, and Booz Allen Hamilton in 2006. 

He acts as the Korean Representative for the Korea Finance Society LP Council and represents GEPS on the Tax Consultation Committee in Korea. He completed military service as a Navy Interpreter for the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command at its spokesman office from 2001 to 2003.

He earned a B.S. in Earth System Sciences from Yonsei University.

Mr. Muse is one of two Managing Partners of Navis and an Investment Committee member. At Navis, Mr. Muse leads investment teams in making, monitoring and exiting investments and sits on the boards and/or executive committees of several Navis portfolio companies. He has been active in many of Navis’ investments in consumer goods, food, business services, industrial goods and services.

Mr. Muse co-founded Navis in 1998 with Mr. Bloy and Mr. Foyston, with whom he worked while at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). At BCG, he worked in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, where he gained experience in a number of industries including consumer goods, retail, oil and gas, distribution, primary resources and more. He started his career with Chase Manhattan Bank in 1985 in New York and Hong Kong.

Mr. Muse has been a resident in Asia since 1993, having been raised and educated in the US. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Hons degree from St. Lawrence University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Samuel Kim joined Affinity Equity Partners in 2013 and is Co-Head of Affinity Equity Partners Korea. He oversees the full spectrum of the firm's investment activities in Korea, with a particular focus on driving operational transformation and long-term value creation across the B2B services, healthcare, and technology sectors. Prior to joining Affinity, Samuel spent five years at McKinsey & Company in Seoul, where he advised Korean conglomerates and global firms on business transformation, operational turnaround, and post-merger integrations.

Samuel holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Economics from Harvard University.

Sangbum Choo is Head of the Private Equity Investment Team and a member of the PE Investment Committee at Samsung Asset Management. Prior to joining Samsung Asset Management, he was with National Pension Service of Korea(NPS) as a senior portfolio manager for 7 years. Among the 7 years in NPS, he worked for the London office of NPS for 3 years. Before joining NPS, he worked for 5 years at the Global Investment Team of the KTB Asset Management and its Hong Kong based subsidiary, KTB Asia.

Sangbum is a graduate of London Business School and holds a BBA from Seoul National University.

Se-Min (Min) is a corporate finance partner at KPMG Korea with over a decade of M&A, valuation, due diligence and other advisory experiences. During his tenure at KPMG, Min developed a robust foundation in executing complex financial transactions and guiding corporate strategy. Throughout his career, Min has built a proven track record of successfully partnering with leading global conglomerates and top-tier PE firms, consistently delivering actionable insights and driving value creation in high-stakes deal environments.

Seung-ki Jeong is the Head of the Alternative Investment Team at Kiwoom Asset Management, where he oversees the firm's alternative investment activities across both domestic and global markets. His responsibilities include managing separate managed accounts (SMAs), fund-of-funds (FoF) investments, and direct investments across a broad range of alternative asset classes and strategies. Prior to joining Kiwoom Asset Management, he served as an Alternative Investment Manager at DGB Life Insurance. Earlier in his career, he worked as an Alternative Investment Analyst at DB Financial Investment, specializing in alternative investment research.

SJ is a managing director in Private and Growth Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, serving as head of Korea Investments. Earlier in his career, he spent eight years in the Investment Banking Division, covering Financial Institutions Group clients across Asia, including Korea and South East Asia. SJ initially joined the firm in 2006 as an associate and rejoined Goldman Sachs in 2023 as managing director.

Prior to rejoining the firm, SJ spent more than eight years at TPG in Asia focusing on buyout and growth investments. SJ has previously worked at Citigroup and PricewaterhouseCoopers. SJ earned a BA in Business Administration from Seoul National University in 2000.

Sudhir Variyar is the Managing Director & Deputy CEO of Multiples Alternate Asset Management Private Limited. In his capacity as a leader and seasoned professional, he plays a pivotal role in firm building and ensuring the continued growth and success of Multiples. He is a member of the Investment Committee and oversees the fund-raising and portfolio management functions.

Sudhir has almost three decades of experience, of which the last eighteen years has been in private equity. He has a strong investment track record and has led investments across a range of sectors including financial services, health care, logistics and infrastructure services.

Sudhir holds a postgraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from IT-BHU.

Sung Woo Ahn is a Partner at 500 Global, where he leads investment activities in Korea. Prior to joining 500 Global, he served as President and Chief Investment Officer at Mirae Asset Private Equity and spent over a decade in investment banking at Citigroup Global Markets in New York in the Technology, Media and Telecom group and Seoul. Sung Woo focuses on AI, enterprise software, semiconductors, robotics, and other deep technology investments. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Tadasu Matsuo leads JST’s alternative investment from January, 2022.

Before joining JST, he led HarbourVest Partners Japan as a managing director and co-head from April, 2020.  As a head of alternative investment, he oversaw Japan Post Insurance’s alternative investment, ranging from private equity and infrastructure funds to real estate and hedge funds since September 2016.  Before joining JP Insurance, he headed Daido Life’s alternative investment. 

Served as Senior Managing Director, he also engaged in private equity fund investment and headed a business development of Alternative Investment Capital (AIC), a leading private equity FOF manager and gatekeeper in Japan. Before seconded from Daido Life to AIC, he managed Daido Life's private equity and other alternative investment for five years. Previously he was in charge of group's business development and investor relations at T&D Holdings, a listed holding company of Daido Life.

Prior to joining Daido Life, Mr. Matsuo held such posts as Director and Managing Director and served as an M&A advisor to various insurers' transactions at PwC Financial Advisory Services Japan from 1999 to 2002. Earlier in his career, he worked for Nippon Life Insurance Company for 13 years, where he managed overseas sovereign credit loans and investments.

Mr. Matsuo received his MBA from Duke University and BA in Economics from The University of Tokyo. He passed the US CPA exams.

Tim Burroughs is managing editor of Asian Venture Capital Journal, having joined the publication in May 2011. He is responsible for all editorial content put out under the AVCJ brand, including Asian Venture Capital Journal, AVCJtv, AVCJ Awards and AVCJ.com. Tim previously spent five years at China Economic Review, serving as editor-in-chief and then editorial director. Located in Greater China since 2003, during which time he has lived in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong, Tim has been a China-based contributor for publications including The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, BBC and China Daily. Prior to moving to China, he trained and worked as a journalist in the UK. He was honored at the Society of Publishers in Asia awards in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and at the State Street Institutional Press Awards - Asia in 2012.

Yu Kyeong Kim has been based in South Korea since 2010, where she heads a team of financial journalists across Seoul and other key parts of Asia for Mergermarket. With extensive experience in investigative reporting on M&A, private equity,  and a range of arbitrage and corporate finance transactions, her expertise spans multiple APAC markets beyond South Korea. She is also a holder of the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) certification.