HONOREES
EXEMPLARY AWARD
Karen Choi
Karen Choi is a fixed income portfolio manager at Capital Group. She has 23 years of investment experience and has been with Capital Group for 15 years. Earlier in her career at Capital, as a fixed income investment analyst, Karen covered utilities, regional banks and non-bank financials in the U.S. Prior to joining Capital, she was a fixed income analyst and senior vice-president with AllianceBernstein and before that with Prudential Financial. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Wellesley College. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Karen is co-chair of the board of the New York Women’s Foundation, and she is active in several local and global non-profit organizations. Karen is a co-founder of Women in Power. Karen also chaired one of the inaugural DEI communities in her workplace. Karen lives in CT and NYC with her husband/partner and four daughters.
Karen is the recipient of the 2021 Pioneer Award by the Korean Community Services (KCS). Karen Choi’s decade-long commitment to KCS has been vital to the growth and expansion of essential programs at KCS. During the peak of the pandemic, her support allowed us to expand our emergency meal service to reach homebound seniors in need in the Bronx and Manhattan.
CATALYST AWARD
Stellar Kim Tucker
Stellar is the Head of the Technology Corporate and Investment Banking group at Truist Securities (NYSE: TFC), the 7th largest bank in the US. She brings over 25 years of deep experience in investment banking, financial services and corporate development. Stellar has executed over $45 billion of transactions in the form of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and equity and debt financings in the US and internationally for both corporate clients and financial sponsors. Prior to Truist, Stellar spent 13 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., most recently as Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Business Services. She was also at UBS Securities and Foros Group, a boutique M&A advisory firm, as Managing Director and Global Head of Business Services.
In her prior role, Stellar was Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Development & Strategic Initiatives at HCL Technologies Ltd. (NSE: HCLTECH), where she managed a global corporate development team and SMEs across functional, horizontal and vertical businesses. Her key areas of focus included next generation technologies in digital transformation, data management, analytics, cloud, IoT, Industry 4.0, IT services and horizontal and vertical software. Stellar spent five years as the Chief Financial Officer of a hedge fund seeded by Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.
As a mission and purpose driven leader, Stellar has actively been involved in the mentoring and development of people in the workplaces and communities around her throughout her career. She has been a key leader and member of Women’s Networks, DEI initiatives and recruitment and development programs and is an advocate for women and minorities with a particular focus on under-represented members. Stellar was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States at an early age. She is passionate about bridging cultural gaps within her community and the companies at which she works.
Stellar is an active member of the Korean Finance Society and formerly served on the board of Volunteers of America — Greater New York, an anti-poverty organization working to end homelessness and domestic violence in the tri-state area while assisting people through housing, health care, and financial support programs. She sits on the Board of Visitors for Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, and the Steering Committee for the KPMG | University of Chicago Annual M&A and Economic Forum.
Stellar earned her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Northwestern University and her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She and her husband are proud parents of four children and one lucky West Highland Terrier, Daisy.
LEGACY AWARD
Ban Ki-moon & The Ban Ki- Moon Centre Network
Ban Ki-moon│8th United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon was the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG) from January 2007 to December 2016. Before becoming UNSG, Mr. Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. As the eighth UNSG, Ban Ki-moon’s priorities were to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He led the efforts for the landmark Paris Climate Agreement and, under his leadership, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda were created.
Ban Ki-moon currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens. In addition, he holds over 20 global leadership positions, including the Presidency and the Chairmanship of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and Chairmanships of the Global Commission on Adaptation, the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee, and the Deputy Chair of the Elders.
Ban Ki-moon Centre Network
The Ban Ki-moon Centre Network was co-founded by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former Austrian President Heinz Fischer in 2018. The BKMC’s mission is to foster leadership for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement by inspiring current decision-makers and empowering the next generation of leaders, especially women and youth. This is done with a long-term vision of building a more sustainable world based on universal respect for human rights, regardless of age, gender, identity, religion, and nationality through a global citizenship mindset.
The first office – the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens - was established in Vienna with the goal of working for cross-sector change within Europe and across the world. An additional office was established in Seoul, Korea called the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future in 2019, serving the East Asia region. On November 3, 2022 the Foundation of the Ban Ki-moon Centre was launched in United States with a goal to scale the Centre’s work and develop a deeper focus on aligned issues within the US and the Americas.
In the United States, the Foundation’s work will focus on four principal issues across strategies of leadership development, advocacy, and catalytic investment in grassroots solutions: 1) Climate and sustainability: to advance issues such as adaptation; food security; renewable energy; environmental health; and sustainable economic development; 2) Gender equity in all sectors: to advance issues such as gender parity in leadership positions within public and private institutions; closing of the wealth gap; and eradication of gender-based violence; 3) Public health equity: to advance issues such as post-COVID adaptations; reproductive health and maternal health; access to universal/affordable health care; and mental health for women and youth; and 4) Peace, security, and justice: including efforts to advance collaboration and peace-building measures, as well as transformative justice efforts within and between communities and institutions.