Dr. KWAK Sungil is an executive director of National Center for APEC Studies and a director of Economic and Security Strategy Department, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). He also serves as an executive director of Korea Pacific Economic Cooperation Council. He has been studying the management performance of Korean firms located in Southeast Asia with interest for a long time. In particular, he has emphasized the need to establish a regional production network since the mid-2010s. He graduated from George Washington University and received Ph.D in Economics. He worked as a faculty fellow at American University. He served a Vice-President of International Association of Area Studies, Korea in 2018-2019.