CHOI Byung-il

President

Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies

Choi Byung-il is President of Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies. He is also a professor and former Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) at Ewha Womans University. He is a renowned scholar in international trade and negotiations and an experienced trade negotiator.

Most recently, he was the President of the Korea Economic Research Institute, a leading think tank representing the Korean business sector. He served leadership positions at several academic associations as the president of the Korean International Economic Association, the Korean Association of Trade and Industry Studies, and the Korea Association of Negotiation Studies.

He was a member of various advisory councils for the Korean government, including the National Economic Advisory Council for the President of Korea, Trade Negotiations Advisory Council, Inter-Korea Relations Council, and Advisory Council for the Ministry of Foreign Affair and Trade.

Prior to joining the Ewha GSIS in 1997 as a founding faculty, he was the Korean chief negotiator for the WTO basic telecom negotiations (1994-1997). He also negotiated service agreement and the telecom annex at the Uruguay Round, the Korea-US telecom agreement, and the Korea-EU telecom agreement. His service in the international area awarded him two medals of excellence from the Korean government.

He was visiting professor at George Washington University, Grinnell College and Ghent University. He received his B.A. from Seoul National University with magna cum laude and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.