Financial firm CEOs to be schoolteachers
Mirae Asset Daewoo Executive Vice Chairman Choi Hyun-man
By Park Jae-hyuk
Chief executives of the nation's major financial companies will teach finance classes at Yeouido High School in Seoul, in the second semester, the Korea Council for Investor Education (KCIE) said Wednesday.
The CEOs include Mirae Asset Daewoo Executive Vice Chairman Choi Hyun-man, NH Investment & Securities CEO Chung Young-chae, Meritz Asset Management CEO John Lee and Korea Investment Management CEO Cho Hong-rae.
NH Investment & Securities CEO Chung Young-chae
According to the KCIE, they will deliver lectures to freshmen of the high school, during a course titled “the Digital Innovation and Creative Financial Prodigies.”
Choi and Chung are expected to give lectures on the securities business, while Lee and Cho will be lecturing on asset management.
Choi also plans to attend the opening ceremony of the course Sept. 6.
Meritz Asset Management CEO John Lee
In addition to their lectures, a full-time lecturer from the KCIE will teach students the basics of finance and the importance of asset management.
The students will make “virtual investments” as well, by playing the online board game “Let's GO Investment Time Machine” that the KCIE developed for financial education.
Korea Investment Management CEO Cho Hong-rae
“Improving teenagers' competence in the field of finance is a very important matter, so finance should be a compulsory subject at schools,” KCIE Chairman Kwon Yong-won said at a press conference in Seoul, July 18. “We therefore decided to open a regular finance class at Yeouido High School as a trial.”
Over the past few years, economic experts have pointed out that Korea lacks basic financial education for teenagers.
Although the Financial Supervisory Service has helped schools set up relationships with local financial firms, there has only been a few one-off financial classes, without any regular ones.
The KCIE said it is seeking to open additional regular finance classes at other schools.