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| BIG Continent CEO Bae Hee-nam, right, poses with KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung in New York, Thursday (EST), after signing a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the university's campus there. Courtesy of KAIST |
A Korean-American real estate tycoon has offered to donate around 33,000 square meters of land and buildings to help establish a New York campus of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), according to the university, Monday.
Bae Hee-nam, who majored in theology at Yonsei University and left Korea in 1981, accumulated his wealth through real estate investments in the United States. He owns, among other businesses, a real estate investment company in New York called BIG Continent.
He decided to make the donation to KAIST when he met the university's president, Lee Kwang-hyung, in New York last month.
During an online press conference last Thursday, Bae said that he made the decision so that Korean students could engage in competition with their peers worldwide and become global leaders.
Lee emphasized that KAIST should enable its students and professors to have a global perspective so that the university can take a leap forward and vie with the world's leading universities.
They also discussed the specifics of the plan that day, visiting suitable places for the university's campus: one on Long Island and another on Staten Island.
This is the first time that a Korean university has announced plans to open a campus in the U.S.
KAIST is expected to spend at least a couple of years to establish its campus in New York.
The university said that Lee will discuss the plan with the university's board members and government officials, while Bae will purchase land for the campus.
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