Moon Kook-hyun (, born 12 January 1949) is a South Korean politician who served as the leader of the

Creative Korea Party Creative Korea Party (CKP; ) was a political party of South Korea. It was formed out of the Uri Party and its resulting civil splinter groups, with their leader Moon Kook-hyun, a well-known former business leader who recently started his polit ...

. Before entering politics, he was a well-known

business manager The Oxford English Dictionary defines a business manager as "a person who manages the business affairs of an individual, institution, organization, or company". Compare manager. Business managers drive the work of others (if any) in order to op ...

and civil

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

campaigner in South Korea. Born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, Moon studied

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

at the

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (abbreviated as HUFS; ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. The university currently teaches 45 foreign languages. In addition, it contains studies in humanities, law, ...

, graduating with a BA in 1972, then took a postgraduate course in

Business Administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

at the

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

.Moon Kook-hyun, CEO Of Yuhan-Kimberly
", ''

The Chosun Ilbo ''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ), also known as ''The Chosun Daily,'' is a Korean-language newspaper of record for South Korea and among the oldest active newspapers in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, ''The'' ''Chosun Ilbo ...

'', 19 January 2001

Business career

Moon began his career at , a company manufacturing

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

and woven fibre products. In 1983, he spent a year in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, taking some new management concepts. On his return, he developed the concept of "environmental management", focusing on

digital printing Digital printing is a method of printing from a Digital data, digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed usi ...

technologies and the use of

recycled paper The recycling of paper is the process by which waste paper is turned into new paper products. It has several important benefits: It saves waste paper from occupying the homes of people and producing methane as it breaks down. Because paper fibr ...

. In 1995, Moon became

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Yuhan-Kimberly. In 1996, Moon was appointed committee director of the U.N. Environment (UNEP) Korea Development Organization. Faced with a financial crisis in 1997, he developed a new shift system where workers worked twelve-hours shifts for four days running, then took four days off.

2007 presidential election

In August 2007, Moon resigned from Yuhan-Kimberly to run in the

2007 South Korean presidential election Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2007. The elections were won by Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, returning conservatives to the Blue House for the first time in ten years. Lee defeated Grand Unified Demo ...

. In October, he formed the

, with an

anti-corruption Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measur ...

, pro-environmentalist program, gaining a bit of support from liberal voters who supported the Participatory Government, conservative voters who wanted to change the government and liked a similar 'business leader' portfolio but disliked

Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak (; born 19 December 1941), often referred to by his initials MB, is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the tenth president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engi ...

, and from the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. In the election, Moon won 5.8% of the votes for fourth place. Moon is a Roman Catholic.

2008 legislative election

On April 9, 2008, Moon beat the close confidante of

(president) Lee Jae-oh (

GNP The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total amount of factor incomes earned by the residents of a country. It is equal to gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes received from n ...

Incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be ...

), by more than 11%.Rise and Fall of Heavyweights
the Korea Times, Retrieved on April 9, 2008 Although the harsh loss of South Korean liberal candidates especially in Seoul at this 2008 election, his campaign against 'the Grand Korean Canal' project boosted his popularity in his electoral division and across the nation. However, he lost his seat after a year (2009.10.22) due to his party members gaining profit illegally by confidential information. The court sentenced him 8 months. In the 2010 re-election for his empty seat, Lee Jae-oh easily regained his seat by 58.33%.

References

External links

Official Homepage

Official Mini-homepage
at

Cyworld Cyworld () is a South Korean social network service. Cyworld was originally part of SK communication, and became an independent company in 2014. Members cultivate relationships by forming ''Ilchon'' (, Hanja: ) or "friendships" with each other ...

)
Official Weblog
at

Naver Naver (; stylized as NAVER) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment. History Naver was the first Korean web provide ...

.com) Grassroot Organizations
MoonHamDae; Koreans with Moon, Civil Supporter`s Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Kook-Hyun 1949 births Living people Politicians from Seoul South Korean businesspeople South Korean Roman Catholics South Korean environmentalists Members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Creative Korea Party politicians Hankuk University of Foreign Studies alumni The Asia Foundation