Geoffrey See

Geoffrey See is an entrepreneur and founder/Chairman of non-profit group Choson Exchange, which supports change in North Korea through exposure to knowledge and information in business, entrepreneurship and law. The organization has trained more than 1600 North Koreans.^[1]

See is frequently cited in the media on changes in North Korea’s economy, society and business environment.^[2][3] See’s work on Choson Exchange has been profiled as a Harvard Business School case study and in the BBC, Financial Times, The Economist, The Atlantic, Joongang Ilbo, The Straits Times and other media.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} He also spoke about “Entrepreneurship in North Korea” at TED@NYC.^[12]

Founding Choson Exchange

After spending 2 years working on North Korean issues outside of North Korea, See visited the country in 2007 and was surprised that young North Koreans were deeply interested in business and entrepreneurship. He was deeply impacted when a North Korean university student told him that she wanted to go into business to prove that females can be business leaders in a patriarchal society. He spent two years trying to find a way to educate this emerging generation inside the country. In 2009, he founded Choson Exchange.^[13]

Geoffrey founded Choson Exchange and developed it into the largest business network in North Korea and the most active organization training Koreans in business, economics and law. In 2013 and 2014, See’s Choson Exchange programs received 400 North Korean participants annually and sent 50 North Koreans to Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia for exposure.^[14] Hedge funds, governments and the media also regularly consult Choson Exchange for insights into North Korea.^[15] Choson Exchange is cited over 50 times a year by international media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Guardian.^[16][17][18]

Other professional activities

See is a member of the Class of 21 of the Kauffman Fellows Program.^[19] See was a Research Fellow at MIT, advises startups as a Catalyst (advisor) at the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research & Technology, was a board member of HB Oil, a listed Mongolian energy company and is the CEO and founder of a North Korea-based incubator program. He was a Board Member of Enovision, a company affiliated to the Pyongyang University of Science & Technology and tasked with commercializing innovation. See previously worked at strategy consultancy Bain & Co. in the United States and South Korea, and in the Singapore Armed Forces.^[20]

Education

He graduated summa cum laude in 2 years from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor in Science in Economics, and received a Masters from Yale University. See also spent a semester at Tsinghua University and researched with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.^[21]

References