KIC promotes private equity head to lead alternative investment

Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) has appointed private equity head James Jongho Kim as alternative investment group head and deputy chief investment officer in a reshuffle of senior positions.

His predecessor Sooyong Jung will move to the post of compliance officer effective from July 1, KIC said in a statement on June 30.

Asset allocation team head Hoon Lee rose to the rank of investment strategy group head, a title that chief investment officer Daeyang Park concurrently has held until June 30.

The heads of alternative investment and investment strategy are the two posts just below CIO Park.

Kim and Lee will also continue to take charge of private equity and asset allocation teams, respectively.

Previously, James Kim led infrastructure and real estate investment teams of the sovereign wealth fund. Prior to KIC, he had worked for Hanwha Group on business strategy management and headed overseas and alternative investments at Hanwha Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

He holds a Master’s degree in real estate from Harvard University and studied construction engineering at Seoul National University.

The reshuffle comes about a year after Park, an ex-CIO of the Teachers’ Pension, was installed as the sovereign wealth fund’s CIO.

KIC invests assets entrusted by the government, Bank of Korea and public funds in overseas markets, which have a net asset value of $157.3 billion as of the end of last year. Alternatives account for 15.6%.

Last year, its investment return was 15.21% after fees, reversing the previous year’s negative 3.8%.

Write to Chang Jae Yoo at yoocool@hankyung.com


(Updated on July 1, 2020 to replace new alternative investment head's name with English name and add his additional role of deputy CIO in the first paragraph. Kim's educational background and work experiences were added as well.)