Ju is the founder and official licensee of the TEDxHanRiver and TEDxMicrosoft. He is excited to be a part of the very first culturally focused TEDx event in the nation as well as in the world. To realize the vision of the event, he formed a group of passionate founding team members, advisors, and Friendship Committee members. It has been a very unique and great experience for him to enjoy full of energy from them. Like a shallow stream flows through a river into a sea, he truly hopes that an inspiration will flow through the TEDxHanRiver into the globalized world.

Ju is an engineer/entrepreneur and received a master’s degree from the Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ji Yeon Ryu is a research student working in the Obstetrics-Fetal Pharmacology Research Unit at the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington. She received her PharmD degree (2009) at the University of Minnesota and attended University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for her undergraduate studies in Psychology. Ji Yeon worked as a pharmacist at Raley’s Pharmacy in Sacramento, California for 2 years where she actively participated in immunizations and diabetes education. Her interest is in clinical research, maternal medications, and clinical pharmacology.

Ji Yeon became involved with TEDxHanRiver because she has faith that it will bring bright, young, and passionate Koreans together to share experiences and build valuable friendships.

Hyemi Lee is a PhD student at Purdue University majoring in Consumer Sciences and Retailing. She received her BA in Consumer Sciences and Human Development and BBA in Business Administration from Ewha Womans University In South Korea, and her MA in Consumer Studies from Ewha. She recently completed another MA in sociology at Boston College which provided a way of understanding consumer society with sociological perspective.

She is sociable and active. In particular, she enjoys having great dishes with her family and friends. She hopes that everyone in the conference will energetically exchange their own thoughts and visions on how to make a great impact in today’s society.

Holly Jo is a rising senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She came to the United States in August, 2004 with nothing more than two bulky suitcases, but has gained tremendous knowledge and worthwhile experiences that continue to shape her identity. She is a Political science major and an Economics minor. Her passion lies in humanitarianism, North Korean refugees, and the fate of North Korea. She also has an avid interest in studio art, especially in oil painting.

Holly is excited to be a member of the TEDxHanRiver’s founding team. She believes that innovative ideas have the power to influence ways in which people think and to make a positive change, even if it is small, in their lives and in the world. She is honored to be able to contribute to organizing the first ethnically focused TEDx event under the name, HanRiver (the major river in South Korea that has been playing a central role in Korean history), and hopes that it will act as a plentiful source of inspiration for the citizens of the world.

Jeff Oh graduated from Seoul Institute of the Arts majoring in Creative Advertising in 2008. He entered into an advertising agency after graduation. However, the pursuit of curiosity about the world made him dropped out the company and led him to the United States. He graduated from University of Minnesota with a major in Economics and he is currently working at the university’s TV-Studio. He is also grounding up his own start-up studio.

Jeff is an initiative, imaginative, and open-minded person and is always looking new opportunities and new unique experience. His dream is to make an innovative business with talented group of people who are specialized in art, business and high technology.

The speech by Mickey Kim at the TEDxHanRiver 2010 had been a new drive for him to choose what field he wants to be in and also encouraged him to participate in the TEDxHanRiver organizing team.

Edward Kim has been working as a Patent Examiner specializing in Computer Networks at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since he graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Having worked and lived in different countries such as Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and now the United States, Edward has learned that one can become a true global leader who facilitates progress and change by understanding the idiosyncrasies of as well as interconnectivity between different cultures and experiences. On that note, Edward is excited to be a part of TEDxHanRiver, a platform that he hopes will spark inspiration on not only Koreans but the global community.

Euiyoung Kim is a graduate student at University of California at Berkeley, majoring Design. He was granted a Master’s degree from EDI (Engineering Design Innovation) program at Northwestern University, and before moved to the United States, he had worked in Strategic Marketing Team for IT Solutions Business, Samsung Electronics from 2006 to 2010.

His research interest has been focusing on Human Centric Research as well as multi-disciplinary study that brings different academic fields together such as marketing, design and engineering through design thinking process.

Euiyoung is very excited to be a member of TEDxHanRiver 2012, and looking forward to meeting new people at events. Also, he hopes that it contributes to share a wide knowledge and inspires many people who live in a flat world.

Heejin is Creative Planner at Innobirds Media, a global social media lab. She works with clients to help with their social media marketing and services. She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in Communication, and also completed an exchange program in China from 2009 to 2010.

Heejin loves to communicate different ideas with others and is interested in social media, tech, and meaning for good. She is very glad to be a part of the TEDxHanRiver’s organizing team since she loves to share and connect people to ideas and new perspectives. She currently manages and helps with TEDxHanRiver’s digital marketing. She is hoping that TEDxHanRiver will deliver great inspiration and a concept of meaning for good to many people.