Genexine

Leadership Genexine,
Leads a Happier Tomorrow
We are paving the way for global medicine
with next-generation innovative medicines led by
hyFC, DNA vaccines and bioPROTAC
sroll

  • Sungjune Hong

    CEO

    Sungjune is the President/CEO of Genexine who has accumulated experience and insights in the management field including finance, legal and strategy.
    Before joining Genexine, Sungjune was CFO at Handok, Phillip Morris, Schneider Electric and Nike Korea and served as the president and COO of ROKIT Healthcare. Sungjune is a certified public accountant in the US and Korea and began his professional career at Arthur Andersen LLP.
    He graduated from Yonsei Univ. and earned BA and MBA degrees in Business Administration. He also received an LLM from Vanderbilt Law School and is a member of New York Bar.
  • Jaehyun Choi

    EVP, Head of R&D

    Jaehyun as a EVP and the Head of R&D is in charge of all R&D-related divisions of the company, including Genexine's bio laboratory and clinical development headquarters, based on over 15 years of diverse experience working in the biotech industry in the United States, Canada, and Korea.
    Before joining Genexine, Jaehyun worked at LG Chem, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, and Trillium Therapeutics, a clinical-stage immunotherapy drug development company, where he secured expertise in anticancer drug research and development. In particular, he has expertise in target protein degradation biology and PROTAC target selection at Arvinas, and served as CEO of EPD Biotherapeutics, strengthening his expertise in management as well as research and development.
    Jaehyun graduated from the Department of Microbiology at Seoul National University with a bachelor's and master's degree and received his doctorate from the University of Toronto.
  • Misun Byun

    Head of Clinical Development

    Misun is the head of Clinical Development in charge of the various clinical studies and development programs. Since 2009, she has played a leading role as a major researcher at Genexine Bio Research Institute and Non-clinical Development and Clinical studies. She also has extensive experience in the overall scope of biopharmaceutical development. She has worked together to develop and grow Genexine's core platform technologies such as hyFc and DNA vaccine, and is working towards the approval of products under final development.
    Misun completed her Ph.D. at the Catholic School of Medicine.
  • Youngjin Kim

    The chairman of BOD

    Youngjin Kim is Chairman & CEO of Handok Inc. Founded in 1954, Handok has led the advancement of Korean pharmaceutical industry through key partnerships with industry-leading global pharmaceutical companies and the early adoption of global standard systems.
    Youngjin Kim began his career in 1984 at Hoechst AG, then a joint venture partner of Handok, and has served in various leadership roles within Handok’s joint ventures throughout his career before being appointed Chairman & CEO of Handok in 2006.
    Recognized as a leader in the industry, Youngjin has been honored with numerous recognitions, including the Prime Minister’s Citation in 2000 for his contribution to Korea’s industrial development and the Bronze Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit in 2005 for improving cooperation between labor and management.
    Youngjin is President of Handok Jeseok Foundation since 2014. He has also served as President of KDG (Korean-German Society) since 2010.
    Youngjin graduated from Yonsei University in Korea with a BA in business administration in 1979. He earned his MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in 1984 and also received the award of Distinguished Alumni Fellows from the university. Youngjin completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 1996.
  • Sungjune Hong

    Executive, CFO

    Sungjune is an executive board member of Genexine, and he is responsible for all managerial support functions of the company, including financial strategy, accounting, investor and public relations, legal and SCM.
    Sungjune previously served as President and COO of ROKIT Healthcare, where he supervised all managerial functions of the company. Before joining ROKIT, Sung June was CFO at Handok, Schneider Electric and Nike Korea. He began his professional career as a certified public accountant at Arthur Andersen.
    Sungjune holds an MBA and BA in Business Administration from Yonsei University. He also received an LLM from Vanderbilt Law School. Sungjune is a member of KICPA, AICPA, and New York Bar.
  • Hyukjong Lee

    Other Non-Executive

    Mr. Hyukjong Lee is an entrepreneur and a leader in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry with more than 20 years of experience. He is currently the CEO and President of Binex which is known to be one of the top biologics CDMO in Asia where he has been in charge of corporate strategy planning and global business development, etc. He is the co-founder of Binex Holdings, the largest shareholder of Binex. Prior to his career at Binex, he has mainly been responsible for strategy planning and business development as the CEO at Genexine from 2005 to 2011. He is also an expert in the finance field with experience at Daewoo Securities.
    Mr. Hyukjong Lee holds a B.A. in Business Administration, a M.A. in Finance at Seoul National University, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.
  • Jinkeon Pai

    Non-Executive

    Dr. Pai Jinkeon graduated from the Department of Biochemistry of Yonsei University in 1974 and received Ph.D. at the School of Pharmacy, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1982. Since 1986 Dr. Pai has worked as a senior researcher at Schering-Plough in the United States for 24 years.
    Since returning to Korea in 2008, he served as Executive Director of R&D, JW Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and CEO of C&C New Drug Development Research Institute. Dr. Pai was essential in introducing open innovation at Handok Pharmaceuticals for five years. After retiring at Handok, he was the Vice President of the Abnoa Research Institute in Korea. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Innocure Therapeutics and an in-house board director. He is also helping startups as the head of the Technology Assessment Team at the WoojungBio New Drug Discovery Cluster.
    He published 'Development of New Medicine to Save People' and 'Basic Story of Saving People in COVID-19' and has written more than 400 columns for ordinary people.
  • Peter N. Laivins

    Non-Executive

    Peter N. Laivins is an Independent consultant and Founder of Neurocognitive Insights LLC. An experienced executive with integrity and proven leadership of both commercial and clinical development for emerging biotech and large pharma, provides c-suite level advice to leaders of growth-oriented companies.
    Most recently, Peter served as Chief Commercial Officer for Alzheon Inc., a privately-held neuroscience company, overseeing strategy, communications, and investor development. Prior to Alzheon, as Senior Vice President of Strategic development program leadership in R&D at Tesaro Inc., he led development core teams for the PARP-inhibitor ZEJULA© and multiple immuno-oncology assets (anti-PD1, anti-TIM3, and anti-LAG3).
    At Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, as Senior Vice President - Late-stage clinical development, he was responsible for the phase 3 development and FDA approval of ONIVYDE© - the first new therapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer in 20 years.
    During a 20+ year tenure at Pfizer Inc., Peter held roles of increasing responsibility culminating as Senior Director / Group Leader, Pfizer US Oncology, where he built a cross-functional oncology business unit and led the launch of SUTENT© - a breakthrough oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor for renal cell carcinoma. A graduate of McGill University (Montreal) with a BSc in microbiology and immunology, and MBA in marketing and corporate policy, originally from Montreal Canada, Peter now resides in Scituate Massachusetts, USA.
    Through integrity and diversity of leadership experience across the spectrum of research, development and commercialization, we believe that Peter Laivins brings a powerful combination of skills qualifying him as a Board member for Genexine.
  • MyunjJu Ahn

    Professor

    - Professor, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Samsung Medical Center (Current)
    - Professor, Hanyang University Hospital
    - Assistant professor, Hanyang University KURI Hospital
    - Postdoctoral fellowship, MSK Cancer Center
    - Clinical fellowship, Asan Medical Center
    - Residency, Hanyang University
  • Sungbae Kim

    Professor

    - Professor, Department of Oncology, Asan Medical Center (Current)
    - Director, Korean Cancer Association
    - Director, Korean Society of Clinical Oncology
    - Director, Korean Breast Cancer Society
    - Chair, Head and Neck Cancer Subcommittee, Korean Society for Chemotherapy
    - Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute, USA
    - Fellow, Hematology and Oncology Ewha Womans University Medical Center
    - Resident, Department of Internal Medicine, Ewha Womans University Medical Center
  • Sehoon Lee

    Professor

    - Professor, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Samsung Medical Center (Current)
    - Director, Clinical Research Institute, Samsung Medical Center (Current)
    - Professor, School of Medicine, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology, Sungkyunkwan University (Current)
    - Director, Scientific Committee, Korean Society of Medical Oncology (Current)
    - Director, Information Technology Committee, Korean Cancer Association (Current)
    - Director, Insurance Committee, Korean Association for Lung Cancer (Current)
    - Board Member, Korea Genome Organization (Current)
    - Board Member, Korean Cancer Study Group (Current)
    - Assistant & Associate Professor, College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital
    - Clinical Fellow, Seoul National University Hospital
    - Visiting Scholar, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
    - Visiting Scholar, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA