The Center focuses on analysis, research, and dissemination of findings on governance-related issues; bridge-building (across the public, private, and civic sectors); and education of the general public and officials in the private and public sectors.
The Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University in Seoul, Republic of Korea became the second Hills Governance Center worldwide when it opened on November 7, 2003. The Center focuses on analysis, research, and dissemination of findings on governance-related issues; bridge-building (across the public, private, and civic sectors); and education of the general public and officials in the private and public sectors.
Along these lines, the Center pursues the specific projects such as regionally relevant case studies, the development of methodologies to measure the cost of misgovernance, and identification of best practices by successful firms in the country. Cooperating with other local organizations in the field of corporate governance, the SeoulCenter organizes forums for local business leaders to share experiences on the operating business environment as related to anti-corruption efforts. The Center convenes conferences to this end as well, including members of government and academia in addition to the business community. Such conferences focus on major regulatory issues and issues under review in ongoing case studies.
Collaborating with local professional institutions such as the Korean Institute of Directors (KIOD), the SeoulCenter uses its research findings and other related materials to train a team of local trainers on locally relevant aspects of corporate governance. These trainers would then conduct training workshops on corporate governance for CEOs, CFOs, and other professionals in their places of business. This training could include governance assessment tools for the trainers to use to determine the governance needs of the client company.
Advisory Board Chairman, Amb. Seung-soo Han, Named Prime Minister
New Advisory Board Members, Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University
In August 2013, Jongryn Mo, together with Stanford University Professor Barry Weingast, published Korean Political and Economic Development. Using the South Korea case as an example and concentrating on three critical turning points, they examine the role democracy can play in the way poor nations become rich and industrialized assuming commensurate changes in the larger political economy necessary to sustain it. The book offers a new view of how Korea was able to maintain a pro-development state with sustained growth by resolving repeated crises in favor of rebalancing and greater political and economic openness.
In July 2013, the Yonsei center released a report, Global Financial Crisis and Its Effects on Asian Capitalism, as a Hills Program on Governance newsletter. Noting that a crisis has been a catalyst for governance reforms in many Asian countries, Jongryn Mo, executive director of the Yonsei center, Natalia Soebagjo, executive director of the University of Indonesia Center for the Study of Governance, Jennifer Oh, assistant professor at Ewha Woman's University, and Yang Xuedong, deputy director of China's Center for Global Governance and Development analyze post-crisis governance reforms and their limitations in their respective countries.
On August 15, 2012, Professor Jongryn Mo, Executive Director of the Yonsei Center, delivered a lecture at CSIS in Washington on “South Korea and Liberal Internationalism: The Middle Power Theory Reexamined”.
On October 11-12, 2010, in advance of the G-20 Seoul Summit, the Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University, in collaboration with the ASAN Institute for Policy Studies (AIPS), hosted an international conference, “G20 and Global Governance Reform.” The Conference Proceedings and the Conference Report provide in depth analyses of issues pertaining to the proper place and role of the G20 in the emerging global governance system.
Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University celebrates 6th Anniversary
On April 28, 2009, the Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University in Seoul celebrated its 6th anniversary with a seminar on “The World Economy after the London G-20: Recovery, Trade and Governance.” Roderick Hills, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Hills Program on Governance, and Carla Hills, Co-Founder of the Hills Program on Governance, were the major speakers at the workshop. Below are their remarks on, respectively, corporate governance and trade.
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea, himself a former member of the Center's Advisory Board, hosted a dinner in honor of Roderick Hills, Carla Hills and members of the new Advisory Board on the occasion of the anniversary.
Conference on "Asian Corporate Governance: Practice & Perspective" March 10, 2006 at CSIS, Yonsei Hills Governance Center Agenda for Conference on Asian Corporate Governance.
The Hills Governance Center at Yonsei has produced a series of working papers:
Additional Papers by the Hills Governance Center at Yonsei:
MO, Jongryn (Executive Director, Hills Governance Center; Professor of International Political Economy, Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University)
Email: jrmo@yonsei.ac.kr
Hills Governance Center at Yonsei University
Yonsei University
134 Shinchon-dong, Seodaemun-gu
Seoul, 120-749, Korea