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As the second stop in the global event series, Reddal hosted the CEO Forum in Seoul on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Against the backdrop of the increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, the forum focused on the theme “80 years of liberation, the next 80 years: Building the future Korea in the new world order”.

The event brought together leaders from multinational corporations, local innovators, public institutions, academia, and the investment community for an engaging exchange of ideas around resilience, innovation, and strategic growth in an interconnected global economy.

For the keynote speech, Dr. Un-Chan Chung, Former Prime Minister, Professor Emeritus at Seoul National University, offered perspectives on building an innovation-driven economy, one rooted in deeper R&D capabilities, fair competition, balanced talent development, and stronger collaboration between conglomerates and SMEs, all with a strong emphasis on sustainable growth and shared value creation. Dr. Chung’s insights opened new views on how Korea and the newly elected administration should look at the Korean economy with fresh eyes when defining upcoming policies.

Watch Dr. Chung's presentation recording (in Korean)

Hankyeol Lee, Reddal Seoul, built onto this with findings from Reddal’s recently published Deep Tech Korea report, that presented the status, opportunities and challenges of the Korean technology venture ecosystem. A roadmap to connect Korea deeper into global talent, capital and networks was presented, providing a starting point for the panel discussion that followed. The presentation can be viewed and accessed here:

View Hankyeol's presentation

Watch Hankyeol's presentation recording

A dynamic panel discussion with perspectives on the rapidly evolving global landscape and Korea’s path forward followed. The panel brought together a diverse group of leaders, including:

• Chulmin Lee, Managing Partner, VIG Partners
• Kyungjin Hyung, CEO, Blissvine Ventures
• Jasmine Lee, Former Assemblywoman and Executive Director, Korea Cultural Diversity Organization
• Mitchell Killeen, CEO, PolyMirae and Treasurer, AustCham Korea
• Philippe van Hoof, Country Manager, ING Korea and Chairman, European Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ECCK)
• Yeongryoel Park, Professor Emeritus, Yonsei University
• Youngsin Huh, CBO, MakinaRocks
• Yvonne Park, President, FleishmanHillard Korea

Moderated by Per Stenius, CEO and Client Director at Reddal, the dialogue highlighted the need for fundamental mindset shifts centered on inclusion, diversity, and transparency to effectively address emerging challenges and position Korea as a leading innovative nation in the future. The panel discussion's highlights, with remarks from the panelists, are available at the following link: Highlights from the panel discussion

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An article published on June 20, 2025, by Mr. Jang Woojin in The Digital Times (디지털타임스) builds on the discussions from the Reddal CEO Forum. In the follow-up interview with Mr. Jang, Per Stenius, CEO and Client Director at Reddal, stressed that Korea’s AI and deep tech growth must be driven from the bottom up by the private sector, cautioning that government-led, chaebol-dependent approaches risk constraining innovation and global competitiveness. He highlighted the U.S. and Finland as examples of ecosystems strengthened by venture capital and supportive regulatory frameworks.

The full interview, titled [오늘의 DT인] "AI분야 100조 투자, 민간 주도로 가야… 재벌에 의존하면 한계" | 디지털타임스, featuring also some highlights from the CEO Forum, is available in Korean on The Digital Times (디지털타임스).

Tags
Korean economy, Economic diversification, Deep tech, Growth strategy, CEO Forum, Reddal CEO Forum