A senior Korean economist, Dr. Soogil Young is currently a visiting professor of green growth at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in Seoul where he also directs projects on global green growth and sustainable development. Since November 2012, he is a member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), co-chairing the Thematic Group on Global Decarbonization.
Professor Young served on the Presidential Committee on Green Growth of the Republic of Korea as its Chairman from 2010-2012 under President Lee Myung-bak, co-chairing it with the Prime Minister. He currently co-chairs the Advisory Committee of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform and the Advisory Board for the Global Green Growth Forum.
He worked at four major governmental think tanks on economic policies in Korea from 1978-1998, including as Senior Fellow at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and as President of the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). From 1998-2000, he served as Korea’s Ambassador to the OECD, concurrently serving as Chairman of the Advisory Board on the OECD Development Centre. From 2005-2010, he served as President of the National Strategy Institute (NSI) in Seoul, an independent think tank on economic reforms. Since the early 1980s, he has served on numerous governmental advisory committees, including four Presidential Commissions/Committees. During 2006-2009, he represented Korea in the Standing Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) as Chairman of the Korea National Committee on Pacific Economic Cooperation (KOPEC).
He has written extensively on Korea’s development and international challenges. Most recently, he edited and co-authored a book, Korea's Green Growth 1.0 - A Critical Assessment, and Recommendations for Green Growth 2.0, which was published in Korean in February 2013. He graduated from Seoul National University in Korea with a B.Sc. in chemical engineering and the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. with a Ph.D. in economics.