Ex-Woori Financial PR official committed to serving students from low-income households

Kim Byung-jin, deputy general manager of Woori Financial Group Future Foundation, gives a speech during a summer program as a part of the Woori Learner project at Seoul National University, Aug. 9, 2024. Courtesy of Woori Financial Group Future Foundation

Kim Byung-jin, deputy general manager of Woori Financial Group Future Foundation, strongly believes he made the right choice in his banking career by joining the foundation, as he is able to help high school students from low-income households.

Kim was a founding member of the foundation in July 2022. He also played a key role for Woori Learner, a project launched in March 2024 to offer financial support for high school students unable to afford private tutoring and other forms of after-school classes.

The foundation runs the project on a yearly basis in tandem with two school semesters, offering a check card to each selected student to spend up to 2 million won ($1,400) per year on private educational expenses.

The project grew fast, and for 2025 a total of 150 students have been selected to receive assistance, up from 93 in 2024.

The 2025 program also expanded to benefit high school sophomores, after focusing solely on freshmen last year.

Moreover, the foundation opened the door wider for all eligible students nationwide to apply for the program, after restricting it to those in Seoul in 2024.

“I am pleased to see all these achievements as a founding member of both Woori Financial Group Future Foundation and Woori Learner,” Kim said during a telephone interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday. “I am thankful whenever I think of an offer to work at the foundation and take a new turn in my career.”

Kim referred to his more than 10 years of experience at Woori Bank, the flagship affiliate of the financial group, where he began as a salesman in retail banking and later developed acumen in corporate social responsibility as a PR official.

He deemed that learning about corporate social responsibility helped him “tremendously” in overseeing all working-level tasks as the foundation’s deputy general manager.

Also making him proud about his job is spending “the group’s hard-earned profits for a greater purpose.”

“A company exists to make money, but it has a higher cause of existence, when its money is used in a more meaningful way,” Kim said. “And I am happy to be a part of serving such purpose.”