Soonman Kwon is Professor and Former Dean of the School of Public Health, Seoul National University, South Korea. He is also adjunct professor at the China Center for Health and Development, Peking University. After he received his Ph.D. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he was assistant professor of public policy at the University of Southern California in 1993-1996. Prof Kwon has held visiting positions at the Harvard School of Public Health (Takemi Fellow and Fulbright Scholar), London School of Economics and Political Science (Chevening Scholar), and the University of Toronto. He is the president of the Korean Health Economic Association from 2018, and was the president of the Korean Association of Schools of Public Health in 2013-2014 and the president of Korean Gerontological Society in 2015-2016. Prof Kwon worked at the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines as the Chief of Health Sector Group (Tech Advisor) from March 2016 to August 2017.

Prof Kwon has been on the editorial boards of leading international journals such as Social Science and Medicine, Health Economics Policy and Law, BMC Health Services Research, and Ageing Research Reviews. He was the editor of the Korean Journal of Public Health in 2007-2009 and the editor of the Korean Journal of Health Economics and Policy in 2014-2015. Prof Kwon is a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. He is also a member of the Independent Assessment Committee (IAC) of the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) of the GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization). He has been a member of numerous government committees of Korea and occasionally worked as a short-term consultant of WHO, World Bank, GIZ, and ADB on health systems and financing in Algeria, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, and Viet Nam.