The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (Kocca) said on March 9 that Han Seung-hoon (한승훈) has taken office as the fourth standing auditor.

Kocca said it expects him to contribute to development of the content industry and to strengthening transparency in the agency’s management, citing his private-sector experience in the information technology and content industries and his management experience in public institutions.

The new standing auditor graduated from Sungkyunkwan University’s business administration department. He worked at Hyundai Department Store in 1998 before moving to early-stage venture company Neowiz, where he handled business planning, public relations and investment management as the organisation grew from just 40 people to a large-company group of about 1,500 employees.

He was appointed as spokesperson at Seongnam City in 2012 and entered public service. He then served for about 4 years as head of the planning and management division at the Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency, where he attracted large-scale fund investment into the content industry in Pangyo Techno Valley. He also led the creation of KAIST’s Seongnam Startup Center, "Jungle On", the first such initiative by a local government, and promoted exchanges on startup support programmes with Stanford University in Silicon Valley in the United States.

Han said K-content is now a core industry that determines national competitiveness. He said he would listen to voices from the field and noted the importance of creative projects based on ideas. He also stressed that in carrying out his duties he must be clean, swift and clear as a public servant for the people.

He also said that for audit work he would prioritise preventive audits centred on support, but apply clear audit standards to actions that go against principles to raise the agency’s reliability and accountability.