The Board of Trustees of Asia Society today announced the appointment of Kyung-wha Kang as the organization’s 9th President and Chief Executive Officer. Her appointment is effective in April.
Dr. Kang is an accomplished diplomat who served as South Korea’s 38th Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017 to 2021)—the first woman to serve in this role in the nation’s history. She previously held key leadership roles at the United Nations and was
appointed to senior positions by three consecutive Secretaries-General: as Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights under Kofi Annan, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs under Ban Ki-moon, and Senior Advisor on Policy to António Guterres.
Before joining the UN, Dr. Kang held various positions in the Korean Foreign Ministry. She served as Minister at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the UN, during which she chaired the 48th and 49th sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She also spearheaded efforts to highlight women with disabilities in the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She was later appointed Director General of International Organizations and Ambassador-at-Large for Global Affairs. Prior to joining the Foreign Ministry, she served in the Office of the Speaker of the National Assembly. She began her career as a journalist, working as a producer for the English language service of Radio Korea of the Korean Broadcasting System.
Stephen E. Biegun, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, said that “former Foreign Minister Kang is a fantastic choice to lead the Asia Society. She was a great partner and courageous leader during the time that we served together in our respective governments.
Dr. Kang won South Korea’s government Service Merit Medal and the Woman of the Year Award by the Korean National Council of Women in 2006. She received her B.A. from Yonsei University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in intercultural communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is currently a Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. She is on the boards of several Korean and international NGOs.
Asia Society is the leading nonpartisan, nonprofit global organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders, and institutions across Asia and beyond. Founded in 1956, Asia Society is an educational institution based in New York with 16 centers globally. Its global network includes award-winning and state-of-the-art cultural centers and gallery spaces in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Delhi, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Seoul, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Zurich. Asia Society also houses the Asia Society Policy Institute, one of the top-ranked think tanks in the world.
