Hongjoo Hahm joined ESCAP in January 2016 as the Deputy Executive Secretary for Programmes. He served as Acting Executive Secretary from May to December 2018. Prior, he worked at the World Bank in various positions - as Senior Advisor to the Water Global Practice Group; Country Manager for the Balkans; Head of the Infrastructure Unit in the World Bank Office in Jakarta (transport, energy, urban, and water and sanitation sectors); and Program Manager for the post-tsunami reconstruction of Aceh, post-earthquake Yogyakarta, and flood mitigation in Jakarta. Hongjoo Hahm worked at Goldman Sachs LLC as the Global Head for Central Banks, Official Institutions and Sovereign Wealth Funds for five years. He also worked at the Asian Development Bank, the Korea Development Institute, and taught economics at New York University, Queens College, and the City University of New York.

Hongjoo Hahm graduated from Cairo American College, received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary; M.Phil from the London School of Economics; and Ph.D. from New York University. He has an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School and a diploma from the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainable Development. He also graduated from Korea’s Third Military Academy and was commissioned as an officer in the Korean Army.