Soonman is Professor and Former Dean of the School of Public Health, Seoul National University (SNU) and has worked over 30 years on UHC, health finance and systems, ageing and long-term care, and pharmaceutical policy in Korea and LMICs. He is the founding director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health System and Financing and was the Chief of the Health Sector Group in the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He was the president of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), which is a R&D agency under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He is a member of WHO (WPRO) TAG (Technical Advisory Group) on UHC and WHO (HQ) TAG on Pricing Policies for Medicines. He served as president of leading academic associations in Korea, including Health Economic Association, Society of Health Policy and Management, Association of Schools of Public Health, and Society of Gerontology. He is an associate editor (Asia Region Editor) of Health Policy (Elsevier) and International Journal of Health Economics and Management (Springer). He received PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1993) and taught at the School of Public Policy, University of Southern California. He has held visiting positions at the Harvard School of Public Health, London School of Economics, University of Toronto, University of Tokyo, Peking University, and University of Bremen. He received the Excellence in Education Award of Seoul National University in 2020. He has been a member of board or advisory committees of Health Systems Global (HSG), WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO Centre for Health and Development, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), etc. He has occasionally been a short-term consultant of WHO, World Bank, and GIZ for health system and financing in Algeria, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.