Michael Kim (businessman)

Michael ByungJu Kim (born 1963) is a Korean American billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of MBK Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. He has been called the "Godfather of Asian private equity".

Kim chairs the Board of Managers of Haverford College. He has been named to Bloomberg’s Most Influential People in the world and Forbes Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy. According to Forbes, Kim had a net wealth of $9.7 billion as of April 2023, ranking him the richest person in Korea and #190 in the world.

Early life
Michael B. Kim was born in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea in 1963. He grew up in Seoul. His family emigrated to New Jersey when he was a teen. Kim attended secondary school there and became a United States citizen. He graduated from Haverford College in 1985 with a degree in English. Kim received an MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1990 and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship afterwards.

Career
Kim began his career as a mergers and acquisitions banker at Goldman Sachs after completing his MBA at Harvard. In 1995, he joined Salomon Smith Barney, where he became a managing director and COO of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking. He later joined the Carlyle Group as a president of Carlyle Asia until 2005.

Kim left Carlyle to found MBK Partners in 2005, which has since grown to over $30 billion in assets under management, raising $6.5 billion for its most recent Fund V, becoming the largest independent private equity firm in Asia.

Kim has broken several records in the South Korean market. His takeover of ING Korea and listing on the market, was the first time a private-equity owned company listed on exchanges in South Korea. His takeover of Tesco subsidiary Homeplus was the largest private equity deal in South Korea's history.

In Japan, Kim and MBK Partners acquired Godiva Japan in one of the largest deals in the consumer sector in Japan's history. In China, Kim and MBK Partners acquired eHi Car Services, one of the largest car rental and services companies in China.

Kim chairs the Haverford College Board of Managers, as well as the MBK Scholarship Foundation. He is or has been on the boards of Harvard Business School, Haverford College, KorAm Bank, China Network Systems, Yayoi, C&M, Tasaki, Universal Studios Japan, Coway, ING Life Korea, Homeplus, RAND Corporation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council and Temasek Philanthropy Asia Alliance.

In 2013 the Asian Venture Capital Journal named Kim as "Private Equity Professional of the Year," and in Finance Asia's 20th anniversary issue in 2016, Kim was called the "Godfather of Asian Private Equity".

An August 2022 Financial Times article, "How South Korea learned to love private equity," called Kim the "godfather of Asian private equity" and one of the founding pioneers of the industry in the region.

In 2015 Kim was ranked #42 on Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential. Kim appeared on the cover of the July 2020 edition of Forbes Asia.

In 2021, Kim was ranked #5 on Forbes' The Richest Private Equity Billionaires, and in 2023, Kim was ranked #1 on Forbes' Korea's 50 Richest, with a net worth of $9.7 billion.

In January 2022, Kim's firm, MBK Partners, sold an approximately 13% stake to Dyal Capital Partners in a transaction valued at about $1 billion.

Kim is the author of a novel, Offerings, published in 2020.

In July 2022, the Washington Post reported that Kim was among those interested in buying the Washington Nationals, the MLB team.

In Tony Robbins' book "The Holy Grail of Investing: the World's Greatest Investors", published in March 2024, Kim was called "The Godfather of Asia Private Equity and wealthiest man in South Korea."

Philanthropy
In 2010, Kim pledged $7.5 million toward the construction of a new dormitory at Haverford College. The dorm is named "Kim" in honor of the donor's father.

In 2018, Kim endowed $7 million toward the Michael B. Kim Associate Professorship for Asian business leadership at Harvard Business School.

In August 2021, Kim pledged KRW30 billion ($27 million) to the Seoul Metropolitan Government to build a public library in Seoul, Korea. Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced Seoul will honor the gift by naming the library after the donor, The Seoul Public Kim ByungJu Library. The gift is reported to represent the first-ever donation by an individual for the construction of a civic institution in Seoul.

In December 2021, Kim was named to Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list. In December 2022, he was named to the Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list again.

In September 2022, Kim donated $10 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The museum will name a gallery after Kim and his wife, the Michael B. Kim and Kyung Ah Park gallery. This will be the first gallery in the museum to be named after a person of Korean descent.

On April 23, 2024, Haverford announced that Kim was donating $25 million to the college (equal to the largest single gift the school had ever received) to establish an Institute for Ethical Inquiry and Leadership and to fund related faculty positions.

Personal life
Kim is married to Park Kyung-ah, the daughter of the late South Korean Prime Minister Park Tae-joon. Her father was founder of POSCO, the largest steel company in South Korea. The couple have two children and live in Seoul.