Ahn Cheol-soo (; born 26 February 1962) is a South Korean politician, medical doctor, businessperson, and software entrepreneur. He is a member of the National Assembly as part of the conservative People Power Party. Prior to his career in politics, Ahn founded AhnLab, Inc., an antivirus software company, in 1995. He was chairman of the board and Chief Learning Officer of AhnLab until September 2012, and remains the company's largest stakeholder. Prior to entering politics, Ahn served as dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University until September 2012. Ahn was considered a left-wing politician when he entered politics in 2012, then considered a centrist politician by his 2017 presidential bid, and is now considered a right-wing politician.
Ahn made his first official entry into politics as an independent candidate in the 2012 South Korean presidential election, polling strongly before dropping out and endorsing the ultimately unsuccessful campaign of Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in. In the 2017 South Korean presidential election, Ahn ran as a third party candidate, losing to Moon Jae-in and winning 21.4% of the popular vote. In the 2022 South Korean presidential election, Ahn ran again as a third party candidate before dropping out of the race and endorsing People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk Yeol, who went on to win the election. Ahn also ran in the 2018 and 2021 elections for mayor of Seoul.
In 2014, Ahn became one of the co-founders and co-leaders of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, now known as the Democratic Party of Korea, before stepping down from party leadership after a few months and then defecting from the party in 2015. In 2016, he was one of the co-founders of the centrist People Party and often served as party leader until the People Party and the Bareun Party merged to become the Bareunmirae Party in February 2018. In 2020, Ahn split from the Bareunmirae Party and created a new party, also called the People Party, which Ahn led until the People Party and the People Power Party merged in April 2022. Since April 2022, he has been a member of the conservative People Power Party.
Early life and education Ahn was born on 26 February 1962, in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, while his father was on military service there; he subsequently moved with his family to Busan, where he grew up. Ahn was not an academic child but had academic hobbies such as reading.
He received his doctor of medicine (MD), master of science (MS), and doctor of philosophy (Ph.D) degrees in physiology from Seoul National University between 1980 and 1991. He became the youngest chief of professors at Dankook University medical college at age 27, marking his first career milestone as a medical doctor. Ahn met his wife while in university.
While a graduate student pursuing his MD, Ahn grew interested in computer software as a hobby, in particular, antivirus software. He soon began working on his own antivirus software after a virus began mass infecting computers in Korea. Ahn was soon victimized by the same virus and reverse engineered the virus to erase it from his disk drive. The program he wrote to get rid of the virus was eventually called "Vaccine" which Ahn gave away for free.
Business career
AhnLab, Inc After finishing military service as a medical officer in the South Korean navy, and leaving behind his career in the medical profession, Cheol-soo went on to establish his venture company AhnLab, Inc in March 1995 after being advised by a software company official to do so. Ahn had previously attempted to distribute V3 via Samsung's brand though Samsung rejected Ahn's offer.
Ahn, not knowing how to run a business at first, struggled for the first several years. Whilst managing the company, Ahn was also attempting to get a master's degree in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1997. Ahn eventually received a $10 million offer from US software giant, McAfee민도식, 나를 확바꾸는 실천 독서법 북포스 155페이지 '1997년 직원들에게 안철수연구소를 맡겨둔채 미국에서 유학하며 실리콘벨리에 머물던 중 현재 경쟁회사 맥아피에게 1천만달러 제안 받았지만 거절' and Ahn met with John McAfee personally. McAfee was struggling to expand into South Korea due to AhnLab, Inc and wanted to purchase the company in an attempt to monopolize the anti-virus software market in South Korea. Ahn rejected the offer because, despite AhnLab struggling, selling the company would lead to widespread redundancies and might allow a foreign firm to dominate the Korean market.
In 1999, the company began to run a surplus after the CIH virus became widespread in Korea and people needed to buy V3 to protect against it. By the end of 1999, AhnLab, Inc became the second biggest computer security company in South Korea. That same year, he won the Scientist of the Year Award presented by the Korea Science Journalists Association. In the following year, he became a recipient of the NAEK Award by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea.
The same company later became the largest computer security company in South Korea,AhnLab Looks to Perform in International Stage at Korea Times.AhnLab Considers Overseas M&A at Korea IT Times. and was included in annual lists of Korea's most admired companies by Korea Management Association Consulting between 2004 and 2008.AhnLab, "The Korea's Most Admired company" Consecutive 5 years at Asia Economy (2008.02.20). Samsung Electronics Most Admired Company in Korea: Survey at Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.krBook review "세상에서 가장 안전한 이름 안철수 연구소" at The Hankyoreh. He resigned as CEO in 2005 and served as chairman of the board until 2012.
Later life and education Ahn became an outside director of POSCO in 2005, and from 2010 to 2011 was chairman of the company.
Ahn was awarded an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree from the Wharton School (San Francisco campus) in 2008. He then became a professor at KAIST in 2008, and later in the beginning of 2011 became the Dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University.
Political career
Entry into politics Since 2006, Ahn had been offered places in the main political parties but was constantly denied any chance to run as an independent due to opposing factions.
In early September 2011, speculation spread that Ahn would enter politics by competing in the 26 October Seoul mayoral by-election. The Democratic Party and Grand National Party attempted to recruit Ahn for the mayoral by-election though they failed due to Ahn feeling like he, and many other voters, had become disenfranchised with the main two choices. Ahn eventually made an announcement, denouncing the opposition and ruling party and saying he was not sure on his candidacy, deciding to watch the polls before making a choice though he shared the sentiment that he felt like it'd take a lot of work to help Seoul, saying "ten years of work" would be needed to help the city.
Analysts stated that if positioned as an independent, Ahn would attract a degree of support from those disaffected by mainstream political parties in the wake of corruption allegations and continuing policy failures.
Ahn's polling was higher than other potential candidates, at 35% with second place coming in at 17%. His approval rating was subsequently polled afterwards, reaching over 50%. Ahn eventually didn't run despite his positive poll ratings instead endorsing Park Won-soon who went on to win the by-election. Park's win has been attributed to Ahn's endorsement due to centrist voters moving to Park's side after the endorsement.
He alluded to standing as a presidential candidate in his 2012 book Thoughts of Ahn Cheol-Soo.
2012 presidential campaign (2012)
On 19 September 2012, at 3 p.m. Korea Standard Time, Ahn held a press conference and announced his intention to run for the 2012 presidential election. This announcement came after months of speculation on whether or not Ahn was going to run for the presidency. The South Korean presidential election was to be held on 19 December 2012. In an address that lasted around 20 minutes, Ahn spent a considerable amount of time explaining how he came to the decision to run for President of the Republic of Korea, quoting the people he had met while exploring his candidacy, who had expressed their desire for a "new politics". Ahn at one point showed to be polling stronger than Moon Jae-in, with a few polls showing he could win against Park Geun-hye, the candidate who would go on to win the election. On 23 November 2012, at 8:20 p.m. KST, Ahn announced that he would drop out of the race, endorsing Moon Jae-in, the Democratic United Party presidential candidate.
National Assembly (2013–2016) On 11 March 2013, Ahn announced that he would run for a seat in the National Assembly of South Korea as an independent candidate in the by-election in the district of Seoul Nowon District C. He won the election on 24 April, entering his first elected office. In May 2013, he launched a new think tank named Policy Network Tomorrow.
New Politics Alliance for Democracy Chairmanship (2014) Having entered the Assembly, Ahn began to explore the creation of a new party, which was provisionally named the New Political Vision Party on the basis of public surveys. On 26 March 2014, however, while the party was in the process of being set up, Ahn merged his faction with the liberal Democratic Party to form the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), becoming co-chairman of the new party alongside Kim Han-gil. Ahn and Kim both resigned from their position three months later in July following the new party's disappointing performance in by-elections that year, which had seen the liberals lose a seat in Jeolla Province to conservatives for the first time in 26 years.
Defection from the NPAD (2015) Ahn remained in the NPAD, but came into increasing conflict with Moon Jae-in, who had taken over sole leadership of the party after his resignation, and the "pro-Roh" faction that Moon represented. In December 2015, Ahn issued an ultimatum to Moon demanding that a convention be held at the beginning of 2016 to elect a new party leader. Moon rejected the demand. Ahn then left the NPAD along with a range of other lawmakers opposed to Moon, including Kim Han-gil. Announcing that he would form a new party, he subsequently joined forces with Chun Jung-bae, who had left the party earlier in the year, to form the People Party in January 2016. Moon resigned as leader after Ahn's defection, describing his experience as "a series of difficult days without a single one of respite".
First People Party (2016–2018) Ahn positioned the new People Party as an anti-establishment centrist force, attracting support from both political wings. He labeled the remaining NPAD "anachronistic progressives", and accused contemporary Korean politicians of lacking policies beyond "short-term gimmicks". In the lead-up to the 13 April parliamentary election, he came into conflict with his co-leader Chun and other members of the party after Kim Chong-in, the interim leader of the Democratic Party, the NPAD's successor, called for the two parties to form an electoral alliance. Kim Han-gil and Ahn's co-leader Chun both supported the plan, but Ahn rejected any prospect of an alliance with his former party. The proposal was ultimately scotched, with Kim Han-gil withdrawing from the upcoming election in protest.