Ahn Cheol-soo

Ahn Cheol-soo was born 26 February 1962 and trained as a medical doctor before founding AhnLab, an antivirus software company, in 1995, eventually becoming its largest stakeholder. He later served as dean of Seoul National University's Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology until September 2012, when he pivoted to politics. He entered the 2012 presidential race as an independent, polled strongly, then dropped out and endorsed Moon Jae-in, who lost. In 2017 he ran again as a third-party candidate and took 21.4% of the vote in a losing effort against Moon. Between campaigns he co-founded the New Politics Alliance for Democracy in 2014, left within months, defected in 2015, then co-founded the centrist People Party in 2016, which merged and split and merged again over the next six years. In 2022 he dropped out of a third presidential bid to endorse conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, who won, and Ahn joined the People Power Party that April - his fourth party in eight years.