Hyoung Gun Wang
Senior Economist
World Bank Group
Hyoung Gun Wang is a Senior Economist in the South Asia Urban Unit of the World Bank based in Washington DC, USA. He is currently the co-TTL of Afghanistan urban lending projects. He is also the Task Team Leader of various knowledge products of urban and regional development analytical work and smart cities. He is leading the Smart Cities Knowledge Silo Breaker (community of practice) of GSURR at the World Bank. His research interests and work programs are Urbanization and urban/regional development, Smart cities and e-government, Incremental and affordable housing, GIS and spatial analysis, and Economic impacts of infrastructure investment. His work programs have spanned a range of developing countries including Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, DR Congo, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Korea, Liberia, Malawi, Mexico, Mongolia, the Philippines, Russia, Rep. of Congo, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam, and Yemen. He worked as an Economist at the Bank of Korea (the Central Bank of Korea). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University.
Ming Zhang
Practice Manager for Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management
World Bank Group
Ming Zhang is the Practice Manager for Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management in the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank. His responsibilities include the oversight of the delivery and monitoring of the entire lending and analytical programs in these two sectors in the region. Before Latin America, he was the Sector Manager for Urban and Water in South Asia. Ming has 20 years’ experience with the World Bank, covering urban development, infrastructure, local government, and decentralization. He has worked on South Asia, Latin America, where he was the Lead Urban Specialist, and on East Asia, where he was the Infrastructure Sector Coordinator for the Philippines based in Manila. His publications include Growth and Competitiveness of Brazilian Cities and Meeting Infrastructure Challenges in the Philippines. Ming received his Master's Degree in Economics and Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Youngsoo Ha
General Manager, Global Business Department, LH
Youngsoo Ha is the General Manager in charge of urban development projects of Latin America at LH. He served as an advisor for the Santa Cruz New City project, carrying out by a city development company in Bolivia. (2017-2019), and a Supervisor of Dongtan 2 new city development construction project, one of the main new city development projects of Korea (2011-2016). From 2004 to 2011, he managed various new city development projects organized by LH. With a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering (2001), he received a Master‘s degree in Finance from Michigan State University in 2016. He earned another Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Korean Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management (2017).
Jon Kher Kaw
Senior Urban Development Specialist
World Bank Group
Jon Kher Kaw is a Senior Urban Development Specialist in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice based in Washington D.C. He also leads the Urbanscapes Group at the World Bank, a cross-sector community-of-practice focused on urban planning and design. He brings with him over 15 years of expertise in public policy, urban planning, and real estate. Since joining the World Bank, Jon Kher has worked on various urban sector activities in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. He was also the primary author of the spatial planning and connectivity chapter in the Regional Urbanization Flagship for South Asia. Prior to his current role at the World Bank, Jon Kher held various key positions at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the national urban planning agency of Singapore from 2005 to 2013. There, he led the planning, design, and implementation of key growth districts, as well as policy recommendations for national-level planning, and allocation and real estate market intervention. Jon Kher also worked in the private sector in Singapore and London and was the co-founder of an urban planning think tank in New York. He holds a Master in Design Studies (Housing and Urbanization) from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.
