Peter Kang , Principal , Barrel
Peter Kang is co-founder and a principal at Barrel (www.barrelny.com), a web design company in New York City. He is creative director of Brink Magazine (www.brinklit.com), an online arts and literary publication. He is also an organizer for the Korean American Film Festival New York (www.kaffny.com).
In 2006, Peter founded Tailor Made KSA (www.tailormadeksa.com), a resource blog for Korean American student leaders that also became the basis for a workshop at KASCON20 and KASCON21.
He graduated from Columbia University in 2005 and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Read moreBernard Moon , Vice President , Lunsford Group
Bernard is Vice President of the Lunsford Group, which is a private holding company consisting of entities in technology, media, research & consulting, health care, investment boutique and real estate.
Previously, he was Co-founder and VP of Business Development at GoingOn Networks, a social media platform for companies and organizations. He led the initial product development where BusinessWeek recognized the GoingOn platform in their "Best of the Web" list for 2007. He continues to serve as an advisor and also serves as an advisor to Innotive (an interactive multimedia platform).
Previously, he was Director of Strategic Planning & Sales at Innotive Corp. Prior to this, Bernard was a Director at iRG, a leading boutique investment bank in Asia, where he focused on Telecommunications- Media-Technology companies. Prior to iRG, Bernard was VP of Business Development & Marketing at HeyAnita Korea, a leading voice portal and solutions provider, which was joint venture between Softbank and HeyAnita, Inc. Bernard was responsible for establishing strategic and content partnerships and helping to build the company from its conceptual stage to a 54-person operation. Additionally, he assisted in the closing of the company's two rounds of financing totaling $14.5 million, which led to its profitability and over $14 million in revenue.
Prior to HeyAnita, Bernard was Co-Founder and VP of Strategic Development for View Plus, a video-on-demand company where he helped build the company from its concept stage. He secured partnerships with Oracle, Scientific-Atlanta, Liberate, and others to support prototype development and service deployment. He also served as a legislative liaison to Governor Jim Edgar of Illinois.
Bernard was a 2007 NetKAL Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center for Asian-Pacific Leadership. He completed a post-graduate fellowship with the Coro Foundation. Bernard received his BA in English and Psychology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and MPA in Telecommunications and New Media Policy from Columbia University. Bernard currently serves on the boards of the Center for Bioethics & Culture, Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA in San Francisco, The Mirae Foundation, Coro National Alumni Association, and Liberty in North Korea (LiNK). He also was Co-Chair of KASCON VI in Chicago.
Read moreSusie Maeng , Senior Account Operations Manager , Nielsen IAG
Susie is a Senior Account Operations Manager at Nielsen IAG. She is responsible for managing major projects for accounts with the domestic and foreign automakers where she provides analysis and insights that measure the effectiveness of advertising. Prior to her current position, Susie has a background in working with auto manufacturers and was part of the Sales Planning, Logistics and Distribution team at Volvo Cars of North America. Prior to Volvo, she was a Dealer Services Analyst at Ford Motor Credit Company.
She received her BS in Finance and Management from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business and received her MBA while at Volvo Cars.
Susie currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Mirae Foundation and hosted KASCON XVI. In her spare time, she likes to try new restaurants and spend time with her friends.
Read moreChristine Hong , Head of APAC Engineering Operations , Google, Inc.
Christine Hong is currently the Head of APAC Engineering Operations at Google, Inc. She is in charge of setting up and expanding Google R&D centers in APAC. Prior to Google, she worked in New York and Hong Kong offices of Morgan Stanley’s M&A and Real Estate groups executing on transactions with a total value over $2.4 billion. In the aftermath of the Asia economic crisis, Christine worked at the International Finance Bureau at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Republic of Korea helping to bring in foreign direct investments to South Korea.
Christine was a 2007 NetKAL Fellow at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work. Christine received her B.A. in English Literature and Political Science from Yonsei University and M.A. in International Relations from Yale University as a Fulbright scholar. During her college exchange student year at the University of Maryland at College Park, she helped to host KASCON XI (Korean American Students Conference) and now she advises undergraduate students who organize the conference, more recently at KASCON XXI at UC San Diego. Christine serves on the boards of YMCA in San Francisco, the National Unification Advisory Council (formerly known as the ACDPU), and The Mirae Foundation. In her free time, she likes to snowboard, hike, dance and cook with her husband, Bernard.
Read moreJeffrey Lee , CFO , Northern Light VC
CFO of Northern Light Venture Capital, a early and growth stage focused China venture fund backed by institutional investors. Was part of the founding team in 2005, and today the firm is known as one of the leading venture capital firms in China.
Began career after college first in investment banking in Korea and Asia, later moving to private equity (investment side) before focusing on entrepreneurship and venture capital which led to actually working in a startup in the chip industry that was acquired by a major publicly listed US firm.
2nd Generation Korean American, born in Los Angeles area but spent the later part of childhood in Alabama. Became exposed to Korean-American community and Korea related issues first in college, participating in the Korean student organizations and KASCON. First trip to Korea (ever) was the summer of sophomore year in college. Although experienced in speaking Korean at home, the real Korean language training came from college classes followed by living in Korea. Today am fluent in Korean and Chinese (putonghua).
The decision to embark on a career related to Asia and Korea happened during the later years of college, and prior to then, had no inclination to Asia.
These days actually living full time in Beijing, China traveling frequently to Korea and San Francisco.
Read moreMichael Park , AVP of Structured Finance , NCB
Michael Park is Assistant Vice President of Structured Finance at the National Cooperative Bank (NCB). His areas of focus are Renewable Energy, Non-Profits, New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits, and Investment Tax Credits. He covers underwriting,relationship management, and portfolio management.Prior to this, he served as Assistant Vice President at NCB in the commercial real estate underwriting department. Here, he underwrote commercial real estate transactions for both portfolio and secondary market (conduit) placement
Prior to joining NCB, he was a finance analyst at The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) where he conducted credit and financial due diligence analysis, negotiation, and documentation of various project financing transactions, for restaurant franchise expansions in Russia, Latvia and the Czech Republic, as well as agricultural food distribution facility expansions in Russia, and an airline service startup in Afghanistan.
Previously, Michael was a Vice President at The Corporate Finance Institute where he screened over 140 early-stage companies, assessed their product/service concepts, milestones, funding needs and management teams to make funding recommendations to private venture capitalists.
Michael obtained his BA in International Relations with a concentration in East Asian Studies from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from George Washington University with a concentration in International Business and Finance. While a college student, Michael was on the executive board of KASCON XI in Washington D.C.
Michael lives in Fairfax, VA with his wife, Abigail, and two children, Tyler and Sydney.
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