RI PRESIDENT ELECT
President-elect 2025-26
Rotary Club of Sae Hanyang
Seoul, Korea
Sangkoo Yun grew up in Seoul, Korea, where his father, a prominent political activist, served as the country’s president in the early 1960s. Instead of entering politics like his father, Yun traveled to the United States to pursue his interest in architecture. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Syracuse University in New York.
When he returned to Korea in the late 1980s, Yun founded Dongsuh Corp., which engineers and markets architectural materials. His business flourished during the construction boom before the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Later, he started the Youngan Corp., a real estate and investment venture.
Yun joined Rotary in 1987, helping to start the Rotary Club of Sae Hanyang. From the beginning, he worked to promote Rotary Youth Exchange and served on his district’s scholarship committee. These interests evolved into a lifelong passion for community service, especially international service.
For eight years, Yun served as co-chair of the Keep Mongolia Green initiative. This project planted windbreak forests in the Gobi Desert to combat dust storms. The initiative’s success helped inspire the Mongolian government to plant a 2,700-kilometer (1,680-mile) “Great Green Wall” to counter desertification. Yun received a Friendship Medal from the president of Mongolia.
Yun was recognized by Queen Elizabeth II as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. The president and prime minister of Korea presented him with an award for distinguished services.
Yun has served Rotary as a director, trustee, committee chair, and learning facilitator. He has also served as moderator of the International Assembly, chair of the Foundation’s Executive and Programs Committees, member of the Strategic Planning Committee, and member of the nominating committee for RI president. In support of polio eradication, Yun is regional vice chair of the End Polio Now Countdown to History Campaign Committee and a PolioPlus national advocacy adviser. He has also represented the Rotary International president at 17 Rotary events around the world.
Yun chaired the Host Organization Committee for the Rotary Convention in Seoul and received The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award. He and his spouse, Eunsun Yang Yun, are Rotary Foundation Benefactors, Major Donors, and members of the Arch Klumph Society, the Paul Harris Society, and the Bequest Society.
Yun is a trustee of the Yun Posun Memorial Foundation, chair of the Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music, and a director of the United Nations Association of the Republic of Korea.
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