Sung Won Sohn
| Sung Won Sohn | |
|---|---|
| Born | Seoul, South Korea |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of Florida Harvard Business School University of Pittsburgh |
| Known for | Economist |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 손성원 |
| Hanja | 孫聖源[1] |
| Revised Romanization | Son Seong-won |
| McCune–Reischauer | Son Sǒng'wǒn |
Sung Won Sohn (born 1945) is a Korean American economist, noted for his skill in economic forecasting.[2][3]
Personal life
Sohn was born and raised in South Korea. He graduated from Gwangju No. 1 High School in 1962.[1] He came to the United States that year to study economics as an undergraduate at the University of Florida in Gainesville on a partial scholarship.[2][3] He earned his Master's in economics from Wayne State University, and then his Ph.D. in the same field from University of Pittsburgh, where his advisor was Marina von Neumann Whitman.[2] He also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.[3]
Sohn's first wife Barbara Stevens died in a car crash on New Year's Eve 1980.[citation needed] He and Barbara had two daughters, Anne and Rebecca. Anne was married to Joe Bissen, with whom she had one son, Oliver; she died on January 25, 2010 at age 39.[4] Sohn eventually had remarried and had a son, Andrew, who studies at the Harvard-Westlake School.[2]
Career
Sohn's Ph.D. advisor Whitman left Pittsburgh to become a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors under the Nixon administration; she was so impressed by his work that she brought him on board as senior economist.[2] On the council, he was responsible for economic and legislative matters pertaining to the Federal Reserve and financial markets.[citation needed] His report on the Eurodollar market earned him attention from the president.[2] David Rockefeller introduced Sohn to the president of the Northwest National Bank of Minnesota, where Sohn would move for his next job.[2] He remained with the bank through various name changes and mergers, as it became Norwest and then purchased Wells Fargo in 1998, and rose to the position of chief economist.[2]
In 2005, Sohn moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to take up a position as president and CEO of Hanmi Bank, replacing Jae-Wahn Yoo. After more than three decades in Minnesota, Sohn stated that he was looking forward to moving to a warmer climate with a larger Korean American population.[5][6] He retired from that position in December 2007.[7] He would later become the vice chairman of fashion retailer Forever 21.[2] In 2008, he joined the faculty of California State University, Channel Islands as a professor of economics.[8] In 2011, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed him a member of the Los Angeles Harbor Commission, which has oversight authority for the Port of Los Angeles.[2]
Awards and recognition
Sohn was named one of the top five most accurate economic forecasters in 2001 by Bloomberg News.[citation needed] In 2004, a Bloomberg Markets magazine survey ranked Sohn as the U.S.' second-best GDP forecaster for the 12 months ending in June 2004.[9] In 2012 the Wall Street Journal again ranked him as one of the U.S.' best economic forecasters; he was the only representative of academia ranked in the top 10, and one of just five in the top 50.[8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 서경호 [Seo Gyeong-ho] (2003-12-02), "'조기유학의 원조' 손성원 美 웰스파고 수석부행장 ['Because I was an international student': USA Wells Fargo executive vice president Sohn Sung-Won]", JoongAng Ilbo, retrieved 2011-09-29
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Lifsher, Marc (2011-07-24), "How I Made It: Sung Won Sohn", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2011-09-29
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "웰스파고 손성원 부행장: FRB 의장 자리에 관심있다 [Federal Reserve Board chairman is paying attention to Wells Fargo executive vice president Sohn Sung-Won]", Money Today, 2007-07-12, retrieved 2011-09-29
- ↑ "Anne Marie Sohn-Bissen", Minnesota Star Tribune, 2010-01-28, retrieved 2012-06-04
- ↑ Reckard, E. Scott (2005-01-04), "Sohn Expected to Shine over Hanmi Financial", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2012-06-12
- ↑ Berry, Kate (2005-06-20), "Bank shot: Sung Won Sohn plans to diversify Hanmi by marketing outside the Korean community and selling products outside the real estate sector", AllBusiness, retrieved 2011-09-29
- ↑ "Korean-American bank Hanmi says CEO Sohn retires", Reuters, 2007-12-27, retrieved 2012-06-12
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Monaghan, Peter (2012-03-04), "At a Small Campus in California, a Top-Ranked Economist Predicts What's Next", The Chronicle of Higher Education, retrieved 2012-06-12
- ↑ Torres, Carlos (2004-10-29), "U.S. 3rd-Qtr Growth Probably Rose at a 4.3% Pace, Survey Shows", Bloomberg News, retrieved 2012-06-12