Michael Kim (businessman)

Last updated
Michael Kim
BornOctober 1963 (age 61)
Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
Other namesMichael ByungJu Kim
CitizenshipUnited States [1]
Education Haverford College
Harvard Business School (MBA)
Occupation(s)Founder, MBK Partners, Philanthropist
SpousePark Kyung-ah
Children2
Korean name
Hangul
김병주
Hanja
金秉奏 [2]
Revised Romanization Gim Byeongju
McCune–Reischauer Kim Pyŏngju

Michael ByungJu Kim (born 1963) is an American billionaire businessman of South Korean origin. [3] He is the founder and chairman of MBK Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. He has been called the "Godfather of Asian private equity". [4]

Contents

Kim chairs the Board of Managers of Haverford College. [5] [ non-primary source needed ] He has been named one of Bloomburg Markets' 50 most influential people [6] in the business and Forbes Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy. [7] According to Forbes, Kim had a net wealth of $9.7 billion [8] as of April 2023, ranking him the richest person in Korea and #190 in the world.

Early life

Michael B. Kim was born in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea in 1963. [9] He grew up in Seoul. His family emigrated to New Jersey when he was a teen. Kim attended secondary school there and became a United States citizen. He graduated from Haverford College in 1985 with a degree in English. Kim received an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1990 and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship afterwards. [10] [ non-primary source needed ]

Career

Kim began his career as a mergers and acquisitions banker at Goldman Sachs after completing his MBA at Harvard. In 1995, he joined Salomon Smith Barney, where he became a managing director and COO of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking. He later joined the Carlyle Group as a president of Carlyle Asia until 2005. [3]

Kim left Carlyle to found MBK Partners in 2005, which has since grown to over $30 billion in assets under management, [1] raising $6.5 billion for its most recent Fund V, becoming the largest independent private equity firm in Asia. [11]

Kim has broken several records in the South Korean market. His takeover of ING Korea and listing on the market, was the first time a private-equity owned company listed on exchanges in South Korea. [12] His takeover of Tesco subsidiary Homeplus was the largest private equity deal in South Korea's history.[ citation needed ]

In Japan, Kim and MBK acquired Godiva Japan in one of the largest deals in the consumer sector in Japan's history. [13] In China, Kim and MBK acquired eHi Car Services, one of the largest car rental and services companies in China.[ citation needed ]

Kim chairs the Haverford College board of managers, as well as the MBK Scholarship Foundation. He is or has been on the boards of Harvard Business School, [14] [ non-primary source needed ]Haverford College, KorAm Bank, China Network Systems, Yayoi, C&M, Tasaki, Universal Studios Japan, Coway, ING Life Korea, Homeplus, RAND Corporation, [15] the Metropolitan Museum of Art, [16] New York Public Library, [17] Carnegie Hall, [18] Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council [19] and Temasek Philanthropy Asia Alliance. [20]

In 2013 the Asian Venture Capital Journal named Kim as "Private Equity Professional of the Year," [21] and in Finance Asia's 20th anniversary issue in 2016, Kim was called the "Godfather of Asian Private Equity". [22]

An August 2022 Financial Times article, "How South Korea learned to love private equity," called Kim the "godfather of Asian private equity" and one of the founding pioneers of the industry in the region. [23]

In 2015 Kim was ranked #42 on Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential. [24] Kim appeared on the cover of the July 2020 edition of Forbes Asia. [25] [ non-primary source needed ]

In 2021, Kim was ranked #5 on Forbes' The Richest Private Equity Billionaires, [26] and in 2023, Kim was ranked #1 on Forbes' Korea's 50 Richest, with a net worth of $9.7 billion. [27]

In January 2022, MBK sold an approximately 13% stake to Dyal Capital Partners in a transaction valued at about $1 billion. [28]

Kim is the author of a novel, Offerings, published in 2020. [29]

In July 2022, the Washington Post reported that Kim was among those interested in buying the Washington Nationals, the MLB team. [30]

In September 2022, the Chosun Ilbo reported that Byung Ju Kim paid 40 billion won in taxes and penalties to avoid criminal prosecution related to overseas tax evasion. This issue was associated with unreported income from the sale of ING Life Insurance in 2018. Kim reportedly made the payment to resolve the matter and evade the possibility of criminal charges in Korea. [31] Kim's company retorted that the accusations were "groundless," that tax evasion was a misinterpretation of the facts, and claimed that the issue stemmed from Kim's move to the United States in 2015. The company further claimed that Kim had paid the tax from the sale of ING contemporaneously to American authorities under the terms of the United States-Korea Tax Treaty, given Kim's United States residence. [32] [33]

In Tony Robbins' book "The Holy Grail of Investing: the World's Greatest Investors", [34] published in March 2024, Kim was called "The Godfather of Asia Private Equity and wealthiest man in South Korea."[ citation needed ]

In July 2024, Kim became chair of the board of trustees at Haverford College, the first Korean-American to hold such a position at a U.S. university. [35] [36]

Philanthropy

In 2010, Kim pledged $7.5 million toward the construction of a new dormitory at Haverford College. [37] The dorm is named "Kim" in honor of the donor's father.

In 2018, Kim endowed $7 million toward the Michael B. Kim Associate Professorship for Asian business leadership at Harvard Business School.[ citation needed ]

In August 2021, Kim pledged KRW30 billion ($27 million) to the Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a public library in Seoul, Korea. Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced Seoul will honor the gift by naming the library after the donor, The Seoul Public Kim ByungJu Library. The gift is reported to represent the first-ever donation by an individual for the construction of a civic institution in Seoul. [38]

In December 2021, Kim was named to Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list. [39] In December 2022, he was named to the Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list again. [40]

In September 2022, Kim donated $10 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The museum will name a gallery after Kim and his wife, the Michael B. Kim and Kyung Ah Park gallery. This will be the first gallery in the museum to be named after a person of Korean descent. [41]

In April 2024, Haverford announced that Kim was donating $25 million to the college (equal to the largest single gift the school had ever received) to establish an Institute for Ethical Inquiry and Leadership and to fund related faculty positions. [42] [43]

Personal life

Kim is married to Park Kyung-ah, the daughter of the late South Korean Prime Minister Park Tae-joon. [1] Her father was founder of POSCO, the largest steel company in South Korea. The couple have two children and live in Seoul. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bloomberg</span> American businessman and politician (born 1942)

Michael Rubens Bloomberg is an American businessman and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the mayor of New York City for three terms from 2002 to 2013 and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States. In 2024, Bloomberg received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden. He has served as chair of the Defense Innovation Board, an independent advisory board that provides recommendations on artificial intelligence, software, data and digital modernization to the United States Department of Defense, since June 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Kun-hee</span> South Korean business magnate (1942–2020)

Lee Kun-hee was a South Korean business magnate who served as the chairman of the Samsung Group from 1987 to 2008, and again from 2010 until his death in 2020. He is also credited with the transformation of Samsung to one of the world's largest business entities that engages in semiconductors, smartphones, electronics, shipbuilding, construction, and other businesses. Since Lee Kun-hee became the chairman of Samsung, the company became the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, memory chips, and appliances. He was the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul. With an estimated net worth of US$21 billion at the time of his death, he was the richest person in South Korea, a position that he had held since 2007.

David Reuben and Simon Reuben are British businessmen. In 2024, they were named the third-richest family in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List, with a net worth of £24.9 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black billionaires</span>

Black billionaires are individuals who are of predominantly African ancestry with a net worth of at least US$1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Goodnight</span> American businessman and software developer

James Howard Goodnight is an American billionaire businessman and software developer. He has been the CEO of SAS since 1976, which he co-founded that year with other faculty members of North Carolina State University. As of November 2024, his net worth was estimated at US$15.7 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index and was regarded as the richest person in North Carolina as of April 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Atlantic</span> American growth equity firm

General Atlantic, legal main entity General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. The firm was founded in 1980 as the captive investment team for Atlantic Philanthropies, a philanthropic organization founded by Charles F. Feeney, the billionaire co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wang Jianlin</span> Chinese businessman (born 1954)

Wang Jianlin is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the chairman, founder, and majority shareholder of the Dalian Wanda Group, one of China's foremost conglomerate companies, which is also well known for being China's largest real estate development company and the world's largest movie theater operator. He previously owned 17% of the Spanish football club Atlético Madrid. In 2016, Wang reached a deal with FIFA to launch the China Cup, in which national football teams compete in Nanning, Guangxi each year.

<i>The Worlds Billionaires</i> Annual ranking of the worlds billionaires by Forbes magazine

The World's Billionaires is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine Forbes. The list was first published in March 1987. The total net worth of each individual on the list is estimated and is cited in United States dollars, based on their documented assets and accounting for debt and other factors. Royalty and dictators whose wealth comes from their positions are excluded from these lists. This ranking is an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding any ranking of those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Farquhar</span> Australian businessman (born 1979)

Scott Farquhar is an Australian businessman who is the co-founder and the former co-chief executive officer of software company Atlassian. Farquhar often carries the epithet of accidental billionaire after he and his business partner Mike Cannon-Brookes founded Atlassian with the aim to replicate the A$48,500 graduate starting salary typical at corporations without having to work for someone else. Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes were Australia’s first technology billionaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Jung-ju</span> South Korean businessman (1968–2022)

Kim Jung-ju, also known as Jay Kim, was a South Korean businessman, investor, and founder of Korea's largest gaming company, Nexon. He was the chairman and CEO of NXC Corporation, the holding company of Nexon, and a partner at Collaborative Fund, a New York-based venture capital firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Beom-soo (businessman)</span> South Korean billionaire (born 1966)

Kim Beom-soo, also known as Brian Kim, is a South Korean billionaire businessman who is the founder and chairman of Kakao, a South Korean internet company. He is currently facing criminal trial on stock manipulation charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smilegate</span> South Korean video game company

Smilegate is a South Korean video game company headquartered in Pangyo. It develops, publishes, and services online games on mobile and PC platforms. Established in South Korea in 2002, it is the creator of Crossfire, an FPS game with over six million concurrent players across the globe, and many more titles. Smilegate is a corporate group owned by Smilegate Holdings. As of 2022, it was the third largest game company in Korea, according to The Korea Economic Daily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert F. Smith (investor)</span> American businessman and philanthropist (born 1962)

Robert Frederick Smith is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. He graduated from Cornell University with a chemical engineering degree and from Columbia Business School with an MBA, before working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bang Si-hyuk</span> South Korean music executive (born 1972)

Bang Si-hyuk is a South Korean music executive, record producer and songwriter who is a co-founder and the chairperson of Hybe Corporation. He founded the record label Big Hit Music and entertainment company Hybe Corporation both in 2005.

Colin Huang Zheng is a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and former CEO of the e-commerce company Pinduoduo, which is now the largest agriculture platform in China. Huang is also the owner of at least three other limited liability Cayman companies, including Pinduoduo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MBK Partners</span> South Korean private equity firm

MBK Partners (MBKP) is a private equity firm focused on North Asia. According to Forbes, MBK Partners is one of the largest private equity firms in Asia.

Robert Theron Brockman was an American billionaire businessman and once CEO of Ohio-based Reynolds & Reynolds software company.

Blue Owl Capital Inc. is an American alternative investment asset management company. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol: "OWL".

Jean Eric Salata is a Chilean businessman based in Hong Kong. He is the founder of BPEA EQT, one of the largest private equity firms in Asia. In February 2023, Forbes put his net worth at US$5.9 billion making him the second richest person in Chile and the 15th richest person in Hong Kong.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Forbes profile: Michael Kim". Forbes . Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  2. ↑ "美금융업체 칼라일그룹 한국에 10억弗투자 추진". Munhwa Ilbo . 29 May 1999. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 Lee, Yoolim; Chan, Cathy (4 February 2015). "Korea's Michael Kim Leads Buyout Surge as Foreign Firms Return". Bloomberg News .
  4. ↑ Horne, Jackie. "Michael Kim: Godfather of Asian private equity". FinanceAsia .
  5. ↑ "Office of the President: Board of Managers". Haverford College. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  6. ↑ "Power, Money, and Ideas: Bloomberg Markets 50 Most Influential People". Bloomberg News . Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  7. ↑ Watson, Rana Wehbe. "Asia's 2022 Heroes Of Philanthropy". Forbes . Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  8. ↑ Kang, John. "Korea's 50 Richest 2023: Combined Wealth Falls For The Second Year, Private Equity Billionaire Michael Kim Tops Rankings". Forbes . Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  9. ↑ "MBK 사람들…'강력한 1인' 김병주와 화려한 참모". Maeil Business Newspaper (in Korean). 12 December 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "MBK PARTNERS". 10 July 2015.
  11. ↑ "South Korea's MBK Partners raises $4.1b for its fourth fund". www.dealstreetasia.com.
  12. ↑ "UPDATE 1-ING Life Insurance Korea raises $974 mln after pricing IPO..." 24 April 2017 – via Reuters.
  13. ↑ "Chocolatier Godiva to sell Asian-Pacific operations to MBK Partners". 20 February 2019 – via Reuters.[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ "Team".
  15. ↑ "Annual Report 2003" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  16. ↑ "Michael ByungJu Kim Elected Metropolitan Museum Trustee - The Metropolitan Museum of Art". www.metmuseum.org.
  17. ↑ "New York Public Library Board of Trustees". www.nypl.org.
  18. ↑ "Board of Trustees". www.carnegiehall.org.
  19. ↑ Canada, Asia Pacific Foundation of. "Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council". Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  20. ↑ "About Us". PAA. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  21. ↑ "Asia Awards: PE Professional of the Year - Michael Kim". 4 December 2013.
  22. ↑ "Michael Kim: Godfather of Asian private equity".
  23. ↑ Davies, Christian (18 August 2022). "How South Korea learned to love private equity". Financial Times.
  24. ↑ "50 Most Influential - #42". Bloomberg.
  25. ↑ "Korea's 50 Richest: Quiet Rainmaker" (PDF). July 2020.
  26. ↑ "The Richest Private Equity Billionaires On The Forbes 400 List 2021". 5 October 2021 – via Forbes.
  27. ↑ "Korea's 50 Richest". Forbes . 17 April 2023.
  28. ↑ "Billionaire Michael Kim's Private Equity Firm Sells Stake to Dyal Capital". Bloomberg News . 12 January 2022.
  29. ↑ Kim, Michael Byung Ju (24 March 2020). Offerings : a novel. New York. ISBN   978-1-950691-62-3. OCLC   1132243427.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  30. ↑ "Billionaire Michael B. Kim among those interested in buying Nationals". The Washington Post . 8 July 2022.
  31. ↑ Daily, Chosun (2024-02-22). "MBK Partners Chief Pays W40 Billion Tax Penalty for Overseas Tax Evasion and Avoids Criminal Prosecution". The Chousun Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-10-13.
  32. ↑ "MBK파트너스, 김병주 회장 탈세의혹 '사실무근'". 더벨뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  33. ↑ 기자, 정민하. "MBK파트너스 "김병주 MBK회장 탈세 의혹, 사실과 달라"". n.news.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  34. ↑ "The Holy Grail of Investing". theholygrailofinvesting.com. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  35. ↑ College, Haverford. "Michael Kim Appointed Chair of Haverford College's Board of Managers". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  36. ↑ Choi, Jasmine (2024-04-30). "Michael ByungJu Kim Donates US$25 Million to Alma Mater Haverford College". Businesskorea (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  37. ↑ "Haverford To Build Another New Dorm". 3 October 2010.
  38. ↑ "Michael ByungJu Kim Donates KRW 30 Bn to Build Public Library in Seoul".
  39. ↑ Watson, Rana Wehbe. "ASIA'S 2021 HEROES OF PHILANTHROPY". Forbes . Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  40. ↑ Watson, Rana Wehbe. "ASIA'S 2022 HEROES OF PHILANTHROPY". Forbes . Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  41. ↑ "MBK Partners chairman donates $10 million to the Met". 7 September 2022.
  42. ↑ "Transformative $25 Million Gift From Michael B. Kim '85 to Establish Haverford's Institute for Ethical Inquiry and Leadership". Haverford College. 23 April 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  43. ↑ Snyder, Susan (April 24, 2024). "Haverford College is getting $25 million from 'the godfather of Asian private equity' for an institute on ethics". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.