So-Young Kang

About So-Young Kang

So-Young Kang is Catalyst, Founder & CEO of Awaken Group, a multi-disciplinary Transformation Design (TD) firm that integrates strategy, leadership and innovation to design experiences that catalyze change. So-Young has nearly 20 years of experience advising leaders globally and is a sought-after speaker across US, Asia, Middle East and Africa on various topics across leadership, innovation and transformation.So-Young loves people, organizations and systems. She and her team work with individuals, teams and organizations to align whats on the inside (e.g., core values, underlying motivations) to whats on the outside (e.g., strategy, user experience, business models, leadership). Simply put, So-Young and her team, including Creative Collaborators, CONSULT + COACH + DESIGN + DIGITIZE to serve clients holistically. She is committed to serving the community and founded The Young Professionals Group (YPG) in 2000, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students achieve their professional dreams. She sits on the boards of Open University West Africa and Love North Korea Ministries. She is a published author of Inside Out, a book on global leadership and innovation. In 2014, she was selected to be a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. So-Young holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA dual degree with honors in International Relations and East Asian studies from University of Pennsylvania with a minor in Music Theory. Prior experiences include McKinsey & Company, Citigroup, and Chiba Convention Bureau in Japan.