Chairman Byun was a top economic policy advisor to the former president Roh Moo-hyun. (image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire)– Byun Yang-gyun(67), the senior presidential secretary for policy planning to Korea’s late President Roh Moo-hyun, will take office as the chairman of Smile Gate Investment.
Smile Gate Investment is an investment firm founded in 1999 that hasinvested in more than 300 venture businesses, including game companies such as Smile Gate and Devsisters, and movies like ‘The King and the Clown’, ‘Haeundae’, ‘Myeongnyang’ and ‘Ode to My Father’.
Mr Byun is chairman with Optis that is engaged in taking over Pantech, embattled smartphone maker, and his move to take charge as chairman in Smile Gate Investment prompts market observers to speculate that the latter will team up with Optis in their buying Pantech. Observers were surprised when chairman Byun decided to receive only one dollar in his yearly payroll.
He will insteadreceive stock options from the venture companies betting big on the company’s positive prospects through the ‘globalization’ processes down the road.
Officials of Smile Gate Investment also highly excited with Mr Byun’s joining the company and pins high hope on future growth. They say, “We are planning a new type of investment business through globalization of domestic businesses.”
“Since Byun has rich experience and a widely developed network, and is a strategic planner, We expect that he will enable many domestic businesses to have opportunities to go abroad and increase their value.” added the officials.
Byun commented on the expectations, saying, “The businesses I met through Smile Gate Investments were weak in sales capacity and networking. I thought venture companies did not have a chance to leap without going global. I made up my mind to stop the current situation together with Smile Gate Investment, which has much experience in discovering IT enterprises.”
By M.H.Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
