Presidential candidate Ahn has worn many hats in storied life

Having been a medical professor, PC virus vaccine developer, venture entrepreneur, a mentor for the younger generation, the life of presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo has been one of continuing challenges.

Born in Korea`s largest port city of Busan in 1962, Ahn had a medical doctor for a father. An introvert in elementary school, he had few friends but was a bookworm who particularly liked novels.

After entering medical school at Seoul National University in 1980, he volunteered to provide free medical services for the underprivileged, treating patients in Seoul`s Guro-dong neighborhood. He majored in basic medicine because he said he thought he would be “more helpful to people by finding out the causes of disease through experiments rather than clinically treating patients.” He also dreamed of winning the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

While pursuing a Ph.D in medical science in 1988, Ahn read a newspaper article on computer viruses that changed the course of his life. He immersed himself into studying ways to fight computer viruses out of curiosity. In June 1988, he developed his first virus vaccine, which was the first version of V3.

He then thought he could help many people with his vaccine software. He woke up at 3 a.m. and worked on the vaccine until 6 a.m.. He also continued life as a postgraduate medical student, a medical professor at Dankook University (1989-91) and a medical officer for the Navy (1991-94).

After he fulfilled his military service in 1994, Dankook refused to reinstate him as a professor. That was when he decided to fully commit to developing vaccine software and went on to establish AhnLab Inc. in 1995.

Not long after founding the company, he studied business management at the University of Pennsylvania until 1997. Over that time, he returned to Korea once a month to check up on his company and gave management instructions via email in the U.S.

Ahn recalled that his schedule was so tight that he had to stay up all night every two days. After returning to Korea in 1997, he struggled to pay his staff their monthly salaries on time.

A huge opportunity for him came in April 1999, when hundreds of thousands of computers across Korea were infected with the Chernobyl virus. Following the incident, AhnLab solidified its status as the country’s No. 1 developer of vaccine software.

Posting 30 billion won (26.9 million U.S. dollars) in sales revenue in 2004, AhnLab was the best performer among Korean software companies. His company caught media attention as an example of a business serving both the public interest and making profits. This was his heyday as an entrepreneur.

In 2005, he left AhnLab and said he wanted to be more than a CEO and contribute to the IT industry. After completing his master of business administration the University of Pennsylvania in 2008, he taught entrepreneurship at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology as a chair professor.

Another turning point in his life occurred in June 2009, when he appeared as a guest on a TV entertainment talk show. His popularity soared soon after, with groups of fans forming. Seizing the momentum, he gave a series of lectures at universities across the country with his friend Park Kyung-chul.

The Venerable Beomnyun, a renowned Buddhist monk, proposed that Ahn hold talk “concerts” for youths. Last year, his talk concerts enjoyed explosive popularity among young people as he spoke of their difficulties in the wake of high youth unemployment.

“Once I got down on my knees and set my eye level with theirs, I felt their pain in my heart,” he once said.

He rose to political stardom in late August last year, when the media began to report the possibility that he would run for Seoul mayor in the October by-election. Fed up with the political establishment, younger and non-partisan voters showed huge support for him, ringing the tocsin for the political establishment.

The Ahn boom grew stronger when he enjoyed an approval rating of more than 50 percent after conceding the mayoral candidacy to Park Won-soon, a lawyer and civic activist, though opinion polls suggested more than half of voters supported Ahn and just 5 percent backed Park.

Ahn had remained silent on his political ambitions until Wednesday, but continually made strategic moves such as donating his personal wealth to public causes in November last year, announcing the establishment of a welfare foundation in February, releasing a video message encouraging young people to vote in the April general elections, releasing a book expressing his thoughts on major issues, and appearing on a TV talk show.

zeitung@donga.com