Ajou University President Choi Kiju... A Transportation Policy Expert Well-Versed in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and More

Ph.D. in Transportation Planning, University of Illinois, USA
Chairman, Metropolitan Transportation Committee, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Former Member, Future Strategy Planning Committee, Seoul Metropolitan Government

Choi Ki-joo, President of Ajou University, was born in 1961. He graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering at Seoul National University College of Engineering and earned a master's degree in Transportation Engineering from the same university's graduate school. He later obtained a Ph.D. in Transportation Planning from the University of Illinois in the United States.

Choi Ki-joo, President of Ajou University, is being interviewed by Asia Economy in the president's office.
[Photo by Heo Young-han]

President Choi served as a senior researcher in the Urban Transportation Research Division at the Seoul Institute in 1992 and joined Ajou University as a professor in 1994. He contributed to transportation policy activities by serving as the director of the government-affiliated Sustainable Urban and Transportation Research Center, chairman of the Korea Committee of the World Road Association, president of the Korean Society of Transportation, and the inaugural chairman of the Metropolitan Area Wide-area Transportation Committee under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

He has also provided advisory services for regional and industrial development as a member of the Seoul Future Strategy Planning Committee, transportation impact assessment committee member for Gyeonggi Province and Suwon City, member of the Central Urban Planning Committee under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, chair of the Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Autonomous Driving Convergence Forum under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and chairman of the Bus Industry Development Committee under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Upon his inauguration as president of Ajou University in February 2022, President Choi declared his intention to pioneer a path for the next 100 years by leveraging his expertise as a transportation specialist. To successfully connect the past, present, and future, he proposed four guiding principles: "Turning imagination into reality," "Transforming experience into achievement," "Uniting us as one," and "Converting effort into success."