Choi Byung-Il

Dr. Choi is the President of the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), a leading think tank representing the Korean business sector. Dr. Choi served as a member of the National Economic Advisory Council (2011-2013), and is currently the Vice President of the United Nations Association ROK since 2008. For 14 years of his tenure as Professor at Ewha Womans University, he was the Founding Chair of the Division of International Studies (2001-2003), the Director of the International Institute for Trade and Cooperation (2005-2011), and the Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies (2007-2011). Dr. Choi was the Korean chief negotiator for the historic WTO basic telecom negotiations (1994-1997), and played a pivotal role in making the monumental global telecom agreement. Dr. Choi’s outstanding performance in the international area awarded him two medals of excellence from the Ministry of Information and Communications in 1991 and 1995. Dr. Choi received a B.A. from Seoul National University with magna cum laude and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale.