Jihoon Rim

Biography

Jihoon Rim is an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business, where he teaches technology and entrepreneurship to MBA and Executive MBA students. Since joining Stern in 2019, he has also served as Executive-in-Residence at the Fubon Center for Technology, Business and Innovation and was previously a full-time Visiting Professor of Management Practice. He also teaches in the TRIUM Global Executive MBA program, a joint degree among NYU Stern, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris.

Professor Rim brings two decades of leadership experience in venture capital and the tech industry. He began his tech career in 2003 and became a venture capitalist in 2007 at Softbank Ventures Asia, a venture capital arm of Softbank Group. In 2012, he founded KCube Ventures, a VC firm specializing in seed and early-stage investments. Under his leadership, KCube's first fund of $10 million returned over $1 billion to investors, achieving a return of more than 100 times and an internal rate of return of approximately 70 percent, making it the most successful venture fund in South Korean history.

From 2015 to 2018, Professor Rim served as CEO and Board Director of Kakao Corp., a leading South Korean public technology company best known for its mobile messaging app KakaoTalk. Taking on the role during a challenging period, he led a dramatic turnaround by expanding Kakao into new sectors including fintech, mobility, and digital content. He championed major investments in artificial intelligence and technology infrastructure. During his tenure, Kakao’s revenue and operating profit nearly doubled. He continued to support the company as Executive Advisor from 2018 to 2020.

Professor Rim has received multiple awards recognizing his leadership and impact. He was named Korea’s Best CEO in 2017 by Insight Korea, a news organization, one of Korea’s Top 10 Heroes in 2018 by MBN, the country’s largest media group, and a recipient of the AIS Leadership Excellence Award.

Earlier in his career, he held positions at The Boston Consulting Group and Naver, South Korea’s largest search engine.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from KAIST. While teaching at NYU Stern following his executive career, he earned a Doctor of Business Administration from Baruch College. He is also the founder and sole funder of the Jihoon Rim Foundation, through which he has made multimillion-dollar donations to support scholarships and mentorship for college students. Additionally, he advises the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on antitrust matters involving technology companies.

Courses Taught

• Founding a Startup (MBA)
• Managing a High-Tech Company: The CEO Perspective (MBA)
• Technology & Entrepreneurship (TRIUM EMBA)

Academic Background

DBA, 2022
Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business, CUNY

B.S., Industrial Engineering, 2004
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Awards & Appointments