Jihoon Rim

Biography

Jihoon Rim is executive advisor and former CEO of Kakao (KRX:035720), a top-tier technology company in South Korea that is well known for its mobile messenger Kakao Talk, music streaming service Melon, and ride hailing service Kakao Taxi among many successful Internet products the company services.

While he was leading the company, Kakao successfully expanded its business into finance, contents, and mobility: disrupting the market and delivering services praised by users. Jihoon also heavily invested in Artificial Intelligence and technology, making Kakao the best mobile platform in Korea.

The company's revenue and operating profit doubled during his two and a half years term and acquisition of $1.6B LOEN Entertainment was evaluated as one of the best M&As in Korean tech industry.

In recognition of his stellar performance, Jihoon was ranked No.1 in “2017 Korea’s Best CEO” survey, and also was selected as "2018 Korea’s Top 10 Hero" by the biggest business media group, MBN. In academia, he received the "AIS leadership award", a prize presented to one person a year who demonstrated exemplary leadership and innovation by the Association for Information Systems.

Prior to Kakao, Jihoon founded an early stage venture capital, KCube Ventures in 2012. The firm quickly grew to become one of the most reputable VC firms in Korea and was also ranked #7 by CBInsights in the category of '2017, The most active corporate venture' in the world. (KCube Ventures was acquired by Kakao in 2015 and became a CVC.)

Jihoon also worked at Softbank Ventures, The Boston Consulting Group, Naver, and Accenture. He has an engineering degree from KAIST.

Courses Taught

• Managing a High-Tech Company: The CEO Perspective

Academic Background

B.S., Industrial Engineering
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Awards & Appointments