A Fixed Income Research Analyst for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Responsible for evaluating investment opportunities
in the healthcare and consumer products sectors.
An investor
Joined BBH in 1988 and has covered multiple asset classes, including equities, municipal bonds, and corporate credits.
SK’s professional investing career began in 1994 as an analyst conducting credit research on high-tech issuers at JP Morgan & Co.
Board Chair of YANA Ministry
Serves as the Board Chair of YANA (You Are Not Alone) Ministry, a not-for-profit organization committed to helping orphaned and abandoned children.
Professional writer
First book,
“Things You See with Your Eyes Closed"
A Blind Wall Street Analyst's Stories
of Everyday Miracles.
Second book,
"Shining through the Darkness"
A Blind Wall Street Analyst's Values
for Durable Life.
As well as regular newspaper and magazine columns.
1. EARLY YEARS
I was Born in 1967 in Seoul, Korea.
I had Glaucoma diagnosed in both eyes at infancy and lost most of the sight in left eye from a surgical mistake just before age one. Surgeries and medication helped to maintain sight in the right eye. However, detached retina discovered in the right eye at age 7.
Despite two attempts at sewing the retina back up by hand, I had total blindness at age 9. I enrolled in a school for the blind at age 9, three years late. And, studied in braille and learned independent living skills (including cane usage). I took piano lessons at the insistence of Mother, who saw music as a possible career path.
2. Jesus and America
I was born into a Buddhist family. I heard about Jesus and the gospel for the first time at the Monday evening service, which was offered to blind students by volunteer pastors. I was very touched by what Jesus said about the blind man in John 9 “That neither he nor his parents sinned but God’s work may be displayed in the blind man’s life.
And then, I was selected as the accompanist to a quartet which toured the U.S., and visited the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia, whose director offered me a chance to attend his school.
While struggling to decide about going abroad, I resolved to take on the challenge by trusting God alone. I had no other choice, as I did not speak English, did not know anyone in America, and was only 14 years old. Then, I began to learn more about Jesus. And started attending church services including Wednesday evening and Friday all-night prayer sessions. I was baptized two months before he left Korea.
3. Another family
I enrolled in Overlook at age 15. I was introduced to the Ormesher Family (from NJ) who, asked by a missionary friend, volunteered to help me; they would invite me to their home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. I decided that I could not stay at Overbrook, and thought hard about returning to Korea. I shared this concern with the Ormesher’s and they offered to welcome me into their home and enroll me in the local high school. Talk about grace dispensers. So, the Ormesher’s became my family, too. No adoption, just legal guardianship agreement with my parents in Korea. Ormesher family raised me from when I was 16.
We are still family.
4. Education and career
High school teachers with no prior experience with blind students worked hard and creatively to teach me.
Because I had no green card, was forced to consider the top-ranked colleges, as they required no proof of financial resources during the application process. However, I got accepted by four schools: Harvard College (National Scholar), Princeton, MIT, and U.Penn (Benjamin Franklin Scholar).
I attended Harvard for undergrad (psychology) and MIT for grad school (management/organization studies).
And I did not complete the Ph.D., however, as I decided to accept JP Morgan’s job offer.
I stayed at Morgan, doing investment banking work, from 1994 to 1998.
Then, I moved to Brown Brothers Harriman, my current employer, in 1998.
I have been doing security analysis, a lot more bonds than equities.
5. My hopes
It has been for a long time a recipient of grace; have been working toward dispensing grace. Through YANA (You are not alone) Ministry's work, hoping to replicate what the Ormesher’s did for me for the abandoned children from Korea.
Yejin is the first child we brought over in 2014, when she was 12.
For all intents and purposes, she is our daughter. There are two other YANA families who are raising the second and the third children we brought over from the same children’s home.
YANA Ministry’s philosophy is that we will be with them forever; they may choose to walk away from us; we will never walk away from them.
My other hope, a dream really, is to be VMIR:
a Vessel for Message about God and to be an Instrument for revealing to the world God’s reality and presence.
