Chairman of the Maeil Business Newspaper and MBN; named acting Prime Minister in 2002 but not confirmed by the National Assembly
| Life | 1952 |
| Era | 현대 |
| Clan | 흥덕 장씨 |
Jang Dae-hwan (b. 1952) is chairman of the Maeil Business Newspaper and MBN and of the Heungdeok Jang clan. Korean Wikipedia says he was born on March 21, 1952 in Daegu, a son of Jang Ji-ryang and son-in-law of Maeil founder Jeong Jin-gi. A Kyunggi High School graduate, he holds a bachelor's in political science from the University of Rochester, a master's in international politics from George Washington University, and a master's and doctorate in international business from New York University; as a reserve air force captain he taught at the Air Force Academy from 1979 to 1983.
He joined the Maeil in 1986 as head of planning, became president and publisher in June 1988, and in 1993 became president of Maeil Broadcasting (MBN), entering broadcasting. Since November 2003 he has been chairman of both the newspaper and MBN, and he chaired the Korean Newspaper Association in 2005-2010. He is shown as executive chairman of the World Knowledge Forum, launched in 2000, from 1998 to 2022.
On August 9, 2002 President Kim Dae-jung named him acting Prime Minister, but at the confirmation hearing allegations were raised of omitted asset declarations, false residence registration for his children, real-estate speculation and gift and income tax evasion; he was not confirmed by the National Assembly, and his acting term ended on August 28. He received the Order of Civil Merit, Dongbaek Medal (1992) and the Italian Order of Merit (2016), and authored books such as International Business Negotiation and One Asia Momentum.
He chaired the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts (2008-2011), was a presidential emergency economic adviser (1997), board member of the World Association of Newspapers (2004-2017) and member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance (2014-2016), and received the Grand Prize of the Proud Koreans Awards (2012). The World Knowledge Forum is said to have drawn guests such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Jack Ma, and the 2005 World Association of Newspapers congress was held in Seoul.