Kwon Oh-hyun, former CEO of Samsung Electronics and chairman of the Orange Planet Foundation, has been elected as the new chairman of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
On September 21, KAIST announced that Kwon was appointed during its 298th extraordinary board meeting held in Seoul. Following the expiration of former chairman Kim Myung-ja's term at the end of June, Cha Gi-cheol, CEO of InBody, had been serving as acting chairman.
Kwon graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in electrical engineering. He earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from KAIST in 1977 and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1985.
He joined Samsung in 1985 as a researcher at the Samsung Semiconductor Research Institute and led the development of the world's first 64Mb DRAM in 1992. Kwon held various leadership positions at Samsung Electronics, including president of the semiconductor division from 2008 to 2011, vice chairman from 2012 to 2017, and chairman and head of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology from 2017 to 2020.
He also served as president of the Korea Invention Promotion Association from 2021 to 2022 and as the seventh chairman of Seoul National University from 2023 to 2025.
Since September 2025, Kwon has been the first business leader to chair the Long-term Strategy Committee of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He has been active as chairman of the Orange Planet Foundation, which supports youth entrepreneurship, since 2021. Kwon has received several awards, including the Gold Tower Industrial Medal in 2009, the Republic of Korea's Top Scientist and Engineer Award in 2014, the Incheon Award in the industrial technology sector in 2012, and the Dasan Technology Award in 1997. He is also the author of 'Super Gap' (2018) and 'Again, Super Gap' (2020).
Kwon's term will last until August 19, 2029, following the approval of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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