By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Bae Soon-hoon, former Minister of Information and Communication, has been appointed as director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (NMCA).
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the 66-year-old Bae will take the helm of the top post of the museum for three years.
It is rare for a former minister and high-profile CEO to become director of the museum, regarded as a position for those associated with art.
``The museum is expected to reinvigorate management under the directorship of a former CEO, like Guggenheim Museum in New York is. Particularly, as the government plans to build the Seoul annex in the former site of the Defense Security Command (DSC), Bae will help the project push ahead,'' a ministry official said.
The incoming head is also expected to upgrade the level of the local art scene with his rich experience in various fields.
Bae graduated from Kyunggi High School in 1961 and Seoul National University in 1966.
He earned his Ph. D in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the United States in 1970 and started his carrier at Daewoo Heavy Industry in 1976, taking office as president and CEO of Daewoo Electronics from 1991 to 1995.
Bae is renowned for ``Tankism,'' his unique corporate philosophy, which emphasizes solid and zero-defect products such as military tanks. With a quality-oriented campaign, Bae helped Daewoo engineers implement major product innovations in terms of cost, design and customer satisfaction.
He was the Minister of Information and Communication in 1998 and chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Business Hub in 2003 and 2004.
Bae also served as vice president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Seoul campus in 2006.