Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Theresa Rah: rising star out of Durban
By Lee Hyo-sik
Theresa Rah, 38, communications director of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games Bid Committee, rose to stardom overnight for her good looks and fluent English after she appeared on air Wednesday to open the bid committee’s final presentation to IOC delegates in Durban.
During the presentation aired live via the IOC website throughout the world, Rah said in fluent English that PyeongChang is prepared to organize the Winter Olympic Games, stressing the Korean government and the small rural town in Gangwon Province have been making all-out efforts to ready themselves for the successful hosting of the world’s largest winter sports festival.
Not only IOC members and others presented at the scene, but viewers around the world paid keen attention to Rah’s speech, wondering who she really is.
Rah delivered the presentation in a confident manner, helping to give a positive impression of PyeongChang on the delegates and others watching.
She said over the past 10 years, Korea has improved conditions for the Winter Games with a high-speed train and the ``Best of Korea’’ project, among others.
A bullet train will link Incheon International Airport and Seoul to the Alpensia Cluster, the main area of the Olympic village.
``Best of Korea’’ is a campaign aimed to advertise representative restaurants, performance stages, shopping malls and other amenities for visitors to enjoy in PyeongChang.
After the presentation, hundreds of Internet users posted messages in cyberspace, saying that they were “pleasantly surprised” by Rah.
They said the former Arirang TV anchorwoman was beautiful and perfectly mannered, effectively delivering the message to the delegates
Some netizens said her presentation was “very persuasive,” stressing that Rah played a substantial role in turning IOC members to be more favorable toward PyeongChang.
Her name instantly became one of the most searched key words on domestic Web portals, reflecting how eager Internet users are to know about her.
Rah is fluent in both English and French as she spent her teens in Canada, Malaysia and other countries along with her father, who was a career diplomat.
After graduating from Ehwa Women’s University with a bachelor’s degree in French, she started her career at the Bank of Korea. In 1996, she became an anchorwoman at Arirang TV. Since April 2010, she has been working as a spokeswoman for the PyeongChang bidding committee.