The Hongneung Forum announced on November 3 that Kim Se-yong, a professor at Korea University, has been appointed as its 7th chair. A housing and urban policy expert who previously served as president of the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) and the Gyeonggi Housing and Communities Corporation (GH), Kim plans to revamp the forum's mid- to long-term development strategy and expand the collaborative network among institutions in the Hongneung area.
Since 2006, Kim has been a professor in the Department of Architecture at Korea University, where he also served as the administrative director. He has been the director of the Urban Research Institute since last year. From 2018 to 2021, he was president of SH and led housing and urban supply policies in the metropolitan area. He also served as president of GH from 2022 to 2025 and was the president of the Korean Institute of Urban Design from 2022 to 2024.
Kim has extensive experience in government advisory roles. He was a policy committee member of the Presidential Commission on Architecture Policy from 2013 to 2015, a special committee member of the Presidential Planning Committee from 2020 to 2022, and participated as a planning committee member of the Presidential Committee on National Planning in 2025. Additionally, he served as a specialist for UN-Habitat from 2014 to 2015 and was the editor-in-chief of the journal Architectural Research Review from 2016 to 2018. Since 2015, he has been an editorial board member of the Chinese Planning Review and has been a full member of the Korean Academy of Engineering since 2019, as well as the chair of the Future Land Forum.
In his inaugural remarks, Kim stated, "The Hongneung Forum has grown into a region-based platform for communication and collaboration among universities and national research institutions in the Hongneung area over the past 14 years. Based on the achievements and trust built over the years, I will strengthen the research ecosystem and support the discovery of common agendas and institutional collaboration to lead a new leap forward."
With this appointment, the Hongneung Forum plans to develop a new mid- to long-term strategy and pursue initiatives to expand the knowledge ecosystem and strengthen inter-institutional networks.
Kim added, "I will create a knowledge ecosystem that connects the region, the nation, and globally by broadening the intersections of innovation in various fields such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), and culture and arts."
The Hongneung Forum was established in 2012 as a collaborative platform involving national research institutions, universities, and public organizations in the Hongneung area. Jang Dae-hwan, chairman of Maeil Business Newspaper, served as the first chair, and the forum transitioned to a non-profit organization in December 2022 after the appointment of its fifth chair, Moon Gil-joo. Since then, it has been expanding its collaborative foundation through forums and expert seminars.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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