Ahn Cheol-soo's presidential bid comes only a year after he stepped into the political spotlight, but his popularity and fame as a software entrepreneur and professor laid the groundwork for his meteoric rise.
The 50-year-old opposition candidate for December's presidential election has followed an unusual career path that sets him apart from the current political establishment and provides inspiration to many young Koreans.
Born in the country's second largest city of Busan in 1962, Ahn studied medicine at the prestigious Seoul National University in the 1980s and went on to become a medical doctor in the early part of his professional career.
While studying for a postgraduate degree in medicine, he discovered a virus in his computer and started to analyze it. He developed a program to get rid of the virus, which led him to abandon his academic career teaching medicine at Dankook University and establish South Korea's best-known anti-virus software firm, AhnLab, in 1995.
The new project not only transformed Ahn's life but is widely regarded as having contributed to South Korea's growth as a leader in the global IT industry.
He earned the nickname, the "Bill Gates of Korea," with the younger generation picking him as the chief executive they wished to benchmark against and a role model for creativity.
After stepping down as the head of AhnLab in 2005, the computer software mogul returned to academia in 2008 as a chair-professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He currently serves as dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at his alma mater.
Ahn has a strong following especially among young Koreans, due largely to his clean and upright image. Last year, he widened his appeal among younger generations by co-hosting a series of talk shows across the nation during which he discussed a wide range of social issues, including college tuition fees and jobs.
Around the same time, Ahn was reported to be a candidate for the Seoul mayoralty in October's by-election, but he decided instead to give his public support to independent candidate Park Won-soon. Park won the race, which was seen as a demonstration of Ahn's political influence. (Yonhap)