Yoon Jin-shik, new senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, was the first person to alert the nation to the impending currency crisis in 1997.
As the presidential secretary on financial policy at Cheong Wa Dae, he detoured an official chain of command to make a direct report to then President Kim Young-sam that Korea needed urgent preemptive measures to avoid the currency crisis. After hearing Yoon's report, the former President came to realize the seriousness of the nation's economic health.
Before the report, then-top economic policymakers had said Korea was strong in macroeconomic fundamentals, although foreign exchange reserves were almost depleted.
But his detour of the official chain of command made him a ``black sheep'' among other top key policymakers, including the finance-economy minister and senior presidential secretary for economic affairs.
Following the currency crisis, he was ``banished'' to the OECD in Paris before coming back to Korea as the chief of the Korea Customers Service. He later became the minister of industry, commerce and energy, as well as vice minister of finance and economy under the Kim Dae-jung administration.
As a junior finance ministry official, he worked with finance-economy minister nominee Yoon Jeung-hyun as his superior and top financial regulator Chin Dong-soo as his junior.
During the presidential campaign last year, he worked as vice chief of the Lee Myung-bak campaign. After the election, he served with the transition team's task force for inducing foreign investment. He concurrently served as vice chief of the transition team's ad hoc national competitiveness committee.
Yoon also worked as president of Korea Investment Holdings.
Born in North Chungcheong Province in 1946, he obtained a doctors degree in economics from Konkuk University in Seoul. He graduated from Korea University, the alma mater of President Lee Myung-bak.