President Kwon Hyung-tack delivers his inaugural speech as took office as president of Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp. (HUG) at HUG headquarters in Busan on April 23. (Photos: HUG)

Kwon Hyung-tack took office as president of Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp. (HUG) at HUG headquarters in Busan on April 23.

HUG President Kwon graduated from Seoul National University International Economics Department and Michigan State University Graduate School.

Kwon, a seasoned real estate financing expert with diverse expertise in economic, financial and investment sectors, takes the helm of HUG for three years.

He had stints such as managing director of HSBC, head of the Investment Division with C9 AMC, an investment attraction adviser with the Incheon Metropolitan Government, senior executive vice president with Midan City Development Co., and chief of the Strategic Business Division with the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp. He also served as president of Gimpo Goldline Co. from 2018 until this past January.

In his inaugural speech, President Kwon said, “I, the new president of HUG, a representative public entity responsible for stabilizing low-income families’ housing, feel a heave sense of responsibility.”

He stressed the stabilization of the housing market, promoting public interests, upgrading working systems, creating of a corporate culture of integrity, and the significance of communications between labor and management.

Kwon said, “We’ll proactively work for the stabilization of the real estate market and promoting low-income residents’ welfare in keeping with HUG regulations and related laws as well as the government’s policies.”

He said HUG will ramp up its roles as a public entity to offer services to the people in the housing sector by strengthening public interests, such as working out ways of expediting housing supply for improving low-income residents’ housing welfare and spurring urban renewal projects which bring real benefits to consumers.

HUG plans to harness its risk management system to lay a foundation for a sustainable development which is not swayed by market conditions and create organization and processes to offer optimal total solutions by reviewing personal and corporate sector services comprehensively, he said.

Kwon said HUG will take steps soon to prevent the public entity’s moral hazards while prioritizing ethics management to make HUG an leading institution of integrity by introducing regulations such as one on the prevention of conflicts of interest.

About HUG

As the sole housing guarantee provider of Korea, HUG has contributed to the people’s residential stability by providing guarantee services to 12.13 million housing units, totaling 1,138 trillion won over the span of three decades.

Through the Guarantee for Housing Completion system covering the entire housing development and construction process, HUG has supported the smooth progress of housing development projects, the housing market stability, and the government policies.

Building on its history of helping people realize their dream of homeownership and the priceless experience of serving as a reliable partner of housing developers, HUG was officially relaunched in July 2015 as a state-owned corporation dedicated to the management of the National Housing and Urban Fund (NHUF) in accordance with the National Housing and Urban Fund Act. HUG has managed 163 trillion won of the NHUF and offered financial supports for the urban regeneration projects since its inception.

As a trusted housing, urban, and finance corporation with 6.7 trillion won in asset and 5.8 trillion won in cash flow, HUG makes its utmost to make housing more affordable and reliable for the citizens by extending guarantee services tailored for each stage of the lifecycle and income level, and financial support with the resources from the NHUF.

HUG will continue to promote urban regeneration collaboratively with the government and the public and private organizations in order to realize innovative social values.