13 minute read
Alumni
Letter from Alumni Relations
Alumni visits to campus are back!
After more than 2 years of the campus being mostly closed to outside tours, it has been great to welcome former students and faculty back to campus to see their alma mater. Whether it is a recent graduate or someone from a number of years back, visitors always have entertaining stories of their experience at SFS and the community that made their time here significant. It is always interesting to hear their perspective on SFS from the time they left to now. Like Korea, SFS is always in motion.
A significant number of alumni that come back to visit are those that are still in university and are in Seoul for summer or for breaks. These alumni enjoy reconnecting with their teachers and former friends from their SFS days and often give advice to the current high schoolers in this informal setting. The students want reassurance from the alumni that the IB will prepare them for university and college. I have yet to hear an alum share that they did not feel well equipped for the challenges they faced in higher education.
Those alumni who are a few more years along in life are so amazed at the tremendous offering of the new high school building. Not only the building but the resources the space affords the various sections is impressive, like the stunning art classroom on the top floor or the design labs that are full of cutting edge technology that we did not have room for in the former high school. Upon seeing the industrial-sized laser, one alumna commented that he did not even have such an advanced machine at his university.
As much as the school facilities have changed, one commonality amongst all the alumni is their desire to see their former teachers.
Whether you're coming from across Seoul or from across the world, you are a member of the SFS community and we would love to welcome you back to campus. Contact Eric De Haan, director of alumni relations to set up a visit.
Eric DeHaan Director of Alumni Relations
Story from the past
Prior to installing the astroturf in 2003, the field was sandy gravel. While walking across the pitch with one visiting alumnus he paused and pulled up his pant leg and showed me a scar which was inflicted by the pitch while being slide tackled. He could not recall if he made the goal or not.
SFS Global Connect
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Seoul Foreign School GLOBAL CONNECT
Celebrating 40 years of the British School, 40 years of IBDP & the 110th anniversary of SFS
Interview with Chris Jaewoo Koh '99
By Cyrielle Bazin
Director of Communications and Marketing
We recently had the immense pleasure to catch up with Alumnus Chris J. Koh ‘99. A New Jersey native, Chris attended SFS in Middle and High School from 1993 to 1999, back when only 31% of Seniors owned a cell phone. In this interview, Chris discusses his life-defining high school experience, finding his identity as a student and his successful career, from SK Chemicals to Co-Founding the Coupang empire.
Q: When did you attend SFS, and how long were you there for?
A: I think I was there for the 1993-1994 school year. When I came to Korea, I was in third grade. So I did fourth, fifth and sixth grade in a Korean school then transferred over to SFS and then graduated in 1999.
Q: Where were you prior to coming to Korea? Where was home for you?
A: I was born in New Jersey in 1980 and lived there for 10 years, then came to Korea in 1990. And that's kind of my short history when you think about it - when I was in my developmental years, it was a half half, a hybrid culture, and I know a lot of the SFS alumni who have experienced the same stuff.
Q: Do you consider yourself a third culture kid?
A: Absolutely. I mean, I think for us at SFS we are special in that sense, where we have our own community, and we have our own kind of bracket, I guess. Because we don't have a set kind of thing, we make our own and some people, myself included, go through this identity crisis in high school: which group do I belong to? Am I American or Korean or something else? Those kinds of things are issues that I constantly grappled with even till this day, I guess. So yes, I do believe that I am a third culture kid.
Q: So when someone asks you “where are you from?”, what's your go-to answer?
A: It depends on who asks….(laughs) But usually, I'd say South Korea, but I do say that I am Korean American as well. So, it's tricky. And it depends on how much I want to talk. Because there's this thing about where we fit in, it's not black and white. So, it depends.
Q: What was your SFS experience?
A: I would describe it as defining. It really defined my view of the world and the cultural flexibility that I have, and tolerance, because I've been thrown into situations where I needed to adapt quickly, and everyone has different norms. You know, the experience that I had as a young man when I was in sixth grade until 12th grade, and the people there really helped me grow as an individual, and not just from the faculty perspective, but also from the students as well. I've developed a lot of lifelong friendships. I still to this day consider them the best friends that I have. And still keep in contact with most of them. And I think that's true for most of the alumni that I know as well. They always have very good close ties to each other, in every age group and so they're very, very supportive as well. And I think the advantage of having been going to SFS is that a lot of the friends that we had there kind of spread to different areas of the world, right? A lot of them are in Korea, but also some in New York, the West Coast and the Midwest. And I can always talk to them about life and certain issues, because like I said before, we tend to gravitate toward the people that have similar kinds of experiences.
So do something that you really think you can do. And I would say, do it! As I said, I think it takes a certain personality to do it, though. You really need to be tenacious, you have to be resilient. It's a roller coaster ride, the highs are the highest highs I've ever had, and the lows are the lowest lows. And it's so challenging, but it's the most rewarding.
Q: And after high school?
A: After high school, I went to UC Irvine to study economics. And kind of did the whole college circle there and I think during my college days, I had to open my eyes and think about surviving in the real world now. Everyone was kind of thinking about ‘okay, how do we get jobs? And how do we make a living from now on?’. After four years of college, I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. And I think what I’m trying to say to those students is that it’s totally normal. Maybe the lucky ones know straight out of high school. But most of us don't. And so I went through that, and thought ‘okay, let's just start somewhere’. Some of my peers went to the investment banking industry and all that, and I had that pressure of ‘what's everyone else doing?’. And these guys in the finance industry are getting paid $150,000 two years out of college while I was making 30,000 to $35,000 at a Korean company, and so there was always that kind of dynamic, and you get that pressure, but I think everyone has a different path to success, depending on what you define that to be. So I think for me, I just kind of thought about, ‘okay, what are the choices laid out here for me?’. And that's kind of the journey that I took after college. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just wanted to learn the ropes. So, I came back to Korea and started at a company called SK chemicals. I did a five year stint there helping with corporate planning, corporate development, and corporate strategy. And they had everything from pharmaceuticals to petrochemical products. So, it's a little bit different from where I ended up, but I learned the ropes and saw how corporations do it, especially Korean corporations, and experienced the Korean corporate culture as well. I did it for about five years, and during my third or fourth year I thought ‘hey, this is not it for me’.
Q: What was it about this environment that you thought was not for you?
A: Well, I think it's just a personality thing. I work well with smaller groups, I guess. I noticed there were some great things about the Korean work culture and everyone's so hard working. And that's part of the reason why I'm still active in the business community in Korea, but also I learned so much about how, just the real world works, and not just in the Korean setting, but after three years I couldn't see any upward mobility or just the freedom to kind of expand to different things. Because, as you know, if you're in a big company like that, it's hard to really make a big difference. So I did what most people do when they don't know what to do with their lives and I went back to school. And I think a lot of my peers were doing that at the same time as well. A lot of people started going into law school, and graduate school, so I applied to a bunch of MBAs. Luckily, I got into some good ones. My reasoning for applying to schools was not just applying what I already learned from SK and taking it to the next level, but also, I was thinking maybe there's some different angle where I can leverage my English skills and different parts of me so I can make a better impact. So maybe I was also leaving the door open for a career change. So I got into Harvard Business School, and that's kind of when that door opened for me. You know, I think getting an MBA has a lot of pros and cons, and it's very expensive. I do recommend it, though, if anyone wants to make a career change, I think that might be the best way to make that gradual change.
Q: And then after that, you went on to found Coupang?
A: Yeah, I met Bom-Seok Kim, who was my partner at Coupang at Harvard Business School (HBS). And so during my first year at HBS, it started off as discussions over coffee or beer or, you know, a meal, right? And then it just naturally progressed to ‘Okay, do you want to start something then?’ It was at the end of 2009, beginning of 2010. That's kind of when we made the decision to start Coupang together. After the first
Chris Koh, 1999.
year [at HBS] most people get an internship for the summer but usually go to one of those consulting companies and then do the second year of MBA and then most likely be recruited by the place where you did your internship. So that's how it works. But instead of doing an internship, I basically decided to start Coupang after the first year with Bom Kim. And after that summer, I just made the decision not to go back to Harvard Business School. I gave them a notice of absence, and they give you about five years to return. So if you notice, I went back to school after five years. But that was something that my parents made me promise, because at the time, you know, Coupang was a company that no one knew about, it was a two or three months old company. But I had such convictions about this company that I decided to go on this journey. And so I think it was one of those moments that I alluded to earlier that are life changing. And I stayed on for five years. And during those five years, every year we were growing by double, and I never thought I would start a company that did like billions and billions of dollars, but yeah, it was just a crazy ride. But also when you're on the outside looking in, it seems like everything is gravy but internally, everything is chaos (laughs).
Q: How do you explain the success of Coupang?
A: I think it was just really good execution at the end of the day, and also obviously the ability to fundraise. I don't know if you remember but Coupang started off as a Groupon clone and at one point in 2011, I think there were at least 60 to 70 competitors that just kind of went into the market. So when you're in that kind of environment, you really want to be the first one to claim the stake, right? So it was a lot about speed at the time. Beat the market and if you want to scale that fast, we really have to execute well, make sure everything's going as planned. So I think that was one of the things that we did well, and everything else is I think luck and timing.
Q: And after Coupang, you went on to found another company?
A: Having founded Coupang just gave me this incredible access to the tech community. Not just in Korea, but also in the States and Silicon Valley. And having had this incredible network, and this experience, I kind of wanted to leverage that and also talk to the new generation of entrepreneurs out there to help them have a similar experience, hopefully. I think we need better mentors, we need better investors, and I think more people to be interested in Korea, or more investors to be interested in Korea. So that's what I'm working on at the moment.
Q: So what advice would you give our high schoolers who want to get into entrepreneurship or want to start their own business after school?
A: I would tell them that there's a lot of resources out there about entrepreneurship. I would say, traditionally, you may want to start working at a company first. Even if these days are changing, I still think there's value in getting experience at a big company. If you're a first time entrepreneur you better do something you are passionate about, really care about. Because this is not just a school project that you can just throw away after a while, where you get graded on, it's gonna really hurt (laughs), it's gonna be a very, very arduous journey. So do something that you really think you can do. And I would say, do it! As I said, I think it takes a certain personality to do it, though. You really need to be tenacious, you have to be resilient. It's a roller coaster ride, the highs are the highest highs I've ever had, and the lows are the lowest lows. And it's so challenging, but it's the most rewarding.
