Co-founder & CPO at Upstage · Building document agents
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We process ~70% of insurance claims in Korea with our document agents — and now I'm in the US figuring out how to bring that impact to every industry. Upstage Studio is how we get there: an agent platform built on our own OCR and LLM models. You design the process once. The agents run, evaluate, and improve on their own. Have a document problem? Let's talk.
Seoul National University
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Data Mining
January 1, 2011 – January 1, 2016
Seoul National University
Master's Degree, Data Mining
January 1, 2009 – January 1, 2011
University of Cambridge
Exchange student
January 1, 2006 – January 1, 2006
Seoul National University
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Industrial Engineering
January 1, 2004 – January 1, 2009
Upstage
US CEO
August 1, 2024 – December 1, 2025
Upstage
Chief Product Officer
June 1, 2024 – Present
Upstage
Product Manager
February 1, 2023 – June 1, 2024
Upstage
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer
October 1, 2020 – June 1, 2024
NAVER Corp
Leader
November 1, 2019 – October 1, 2020
NAVER Corp
Technical Lead
January 1, 2019 – October 1, 2019
NAVER Corp
Machine Learning Engineer
September 1, 2016 – December 1, 2018
Numberworks, Inc.
Intern
January 1, 2016 – April 1, 2016
Seoul, Seoul, South Korea
Atilika
Technical Advisor
October 1, 2015 – December 1, 2015
Tokyo, Japan
Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Lecturer
March 1, 2015 – June 1, 2015
Seoul, Seoul, South Korea
NCSOFT
Intern
January 1, 2015 – February 1, 2015
Gyeonggi, South Korea
A.T. Kearney
Research Assistant
January 1, 2008 – March 1, 2008
Jongro-gu, Seoul, Korea
Upstage Studio
November 1, 2025 – Present
An agent platform for document work, built on Upstage's own OCR and LLM models. You design the process once — the agents run, evaluate, and improve on their own. Used across insurance, manufacturing, logistics, and beyond.
KoNLPy
August 1, 2014 – September 1, 2016
KoNLPy (pronounced “ko en el PIE”) is a Python package for natural language processing (NLP) of the Korean language. KoNLPy was a pet project I’ve done during my Ph.D. studies at Seoul National University, in order to lower the barriers of Korean NLP.
Politics in Korea
July 1, 2013 – December 1, 2014
Pokr (pronounced pō-kər) aims to list all politicians and bills in South Korea. It currently contains over 14,000 candidates and elected officials of the National Assembly Election. I played a major role in designing and implementing Politics in Korea from back-end to front-end.
Cultural Fit Analysis
The candidate's career trajectory shows a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a drive for innovation, particularly in the AI/NLP space. Their involvement in multiple leadership roles at a startup (Upstage) and leading initiatives at a large corporation (NAVER) demonstrates adaptability and a broad range of experiences. The personal projects like KoNLPy and Politics in Korea highlight a passion for data-driven initiatives and contributing to open-source/public good, which aligns with a culture valuing initiative and impact. However, the target role of 'Data Analyst' might be a step down from their recent leadership roles, potentially indicating a mismatch in career aspirations or a desire for a more hands-on technical role. The breadth of experience is high, but the direct alignment with a pure 'Data Analyst' role, rather than a 'Lead Data Scientist' or 'Head of AI/ML', needs further exploration.
Soft Skills & Operational Fit
The candidate's experience as a US CEO, Chief Product Officer, and Co-founder indicates strong leadership, strategic planning, and cross-functional collaboration skills. Their involvement in team building and shaping company culture suggests a proactive and influential operational fit. The project descriptions, while not explicitly detailing soft skills, imply strong initiative and problem-solving abilities.