Timothy Taeil Hwang (born February 20, 1992) is an American businessman, the current co-founder and CEO of

FiscalNote FiscalNote Holdings, Inc., or commonly FiscalNote, is a publicly traded software, data, and media company headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company was founded by Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen in 2013. FiscalNote provides sof ...

, a global software, data, and media company.

Early life

Tim Hwang was born on February 20, 1992, in

East Lansing East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County, Michigan, Clinton County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, the son of immigrants from

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. His family later moved to Potomac, Maryland, where he was elected as the student member of the Montgomery County Board Of Education and graduated from Thomas S. Wootton High School in 2010. At the age of 14, he founded Operation Fly after a church missions trip to

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. Hwang attended the

Woodrow Wilson School The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of co ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was also active in helping to found the National Youth Association (now defunct), a national youth lobby organization. He then was admitted to

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Business career

In early 2013, as Hwang was finishing his degree at Princeton, he launched FiscalNote along with two friends from high school, Gerald Yao and Jonathan Chen. Hwang deferred his attendance at Harvard Business School to start the company while Yao took a leave of absence from

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. At the time, FiscalNote began its service as a state legislative tracking service. Hwang, Yao, and Chen, bootstrapped the business with several thousand dollars and incorporated FiscalNote in June 2013. FiscalNote soon moved the company to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and raised several rounds of venture capital. The firm has grown to become one of the largest software employers in the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. In 2017, Washington DC Mayor

Muriel Bowser Muriel Elizabeth Bowser (born August 2, 1972) is an American politician who has served as the current mayor of the District of Columbia since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she previously represented th ...

announced a major job training program and economic development package alongside Hwang, pioneering a new model for technology development in the city. Hwang was the protagonist of a

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and one of ...

case study in Fall 2015, a 2016-hour-long

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

Documentary (Sympathy: Tim Hwang at the Center of Korea's Attention), and a

n biography "24 Year Old Tim Hwang: The CEO that the World is Paying Attention To." Hwang has been widely criticized for making critical comments in the

n media about the health of the Korean economy, stating that "the Korean economy is like a patient with crutches." During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Hwang fired 30 staff from the CQ

Roll Call ''Roll Call'' is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of c ...

newsroom, with one source telling AdWeek that the layoffs included the entire team of investigative reporters, and all but one staff member from the print magazine team. A month earlier, Hwang had told a reporter with Washington Business Journal that Roll Call was "on track to bring in $100 million in 2020 revenue and turn a profit.”

Philanthropy

Hwang is a Trustee on the Board of the

Community Foundation Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global pheno ...

of the National Capital Region, a member of the Board of the

Afterschool Alliance The Afterschool Alliance is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization in the United States whose mission is "to ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs." It uses communications and advocacy strategies to incre ...

, a member of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., and the Young Presidents Organization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hwang, Tim Living people 1992 births American people of South Korean descent Businesspeople from Maryland Businesspeople from New York City Harvard Business School alumni Princeton University alumni American technology chief executives