Doctoral Candidate
Nationality: Republic of Korea
Highest Academic Degree: Master of Business Administration
Institution / University: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Professional Career
Mr. Won Seuk Jang has over 22 years of experience in strategy consulting, investment banking, private equity, and global corporations, spanning South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai (UAE), and Saudi Arabia. He began his career as a strategy consultant at Booz Allen and Bain & Company. After completing his MBA at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2009, he joined Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore as an Investment Banking Associate in the Oil, Gas & Chemicals team. Following this, he transitioned to a leading private equity firm based in Singapore and Dubai, where he worked on multiple direct investments across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He later held the position of Vice President and Head of the Global Investment Team at SK Inc., South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate with global assets of over US$240 billion, based in Seoul. Mr. Jang currently serves as a Business Development Specialist at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company, where he is part of the Downstream Growth & Development team, executing large-scale M&A transactions globally.
Research Interest
Global large-scale M&A transactions, with particular focus on the fundamental reasons of post-closing failures to develop strategies to mitigate or minimize such risks.
Research Specialty
Post-closing performance from financial, accounting, and capital market perspectives, root causes of failure, and potential remedies for global M&A practitioners.
Statement of Motivation for a DBA
Mr. Won Seuk Jang applied to the BSL Doctorate Program to pursue his long-standing academic interests in the global M&A field. He aims to leverage BSL’s resources, faculty support, and flexible curriculum to optimize his time management. As a self-starter, Mr. Jang has been compiling various research topics since 2017, particularly when faced with challenging business issues, to develop and refine his own theories. Some of his work has already been published in prestigious journals, including the Journal of International Finance Studies (JIFS), Case Studies in Business and Management, and the International Research Journal of Applied Finance (IRJAF). At this point in his career, he believes it is the ideal time to begin developing his thesis, and he sees the BSL DBA program as the perfect platform to achieve his academic goals over the next three to five years.
