As of February 14th, the long-expected new members arrived in Jakarta to join the Establishment Committee for Jakarta International University (JIU), doubling the size of the original committee and adding great excitement and expectation to the work in progress. They are experts from various academic and professional backgrounds – business, architecture, and education – expected to take leadership in some of the key sectors in the committee. It is anticipated that their unique knowledge and experiences will come together in harmony to enhance the committee’s overall work structure and professional foundation, making 2014 a busy yet fun year in which much of the planned work will progress into further specification as well as concrete realization.

Oh, Changgwon, a master architect with years of experiences in K-12 public school design and construction as well as environmentally friendly design, has been responsible for the development of the master plan for JIU campus and cityscape in partnership with BaMI. His job will involve overseeing the construction of the first main JIU campus building, which is planned to be under construction from July 2014.

Lee, Dong-yeol (Daniel) studied in a Ph.D. program in Business Administration at the University of Washington. He served at Mongolia International University as a professor in the department of International Business Management before joining the team. He will head the Financial Affairs sector and ensure that all the financial aspects of the committee are in order. He will also help establish the center for entrepreneurship and small businesses.

Mr. Luke Yim, the youngest addition to the team, holds a B.A. in Intercultural Studies and an M.A. in International Eductaional Development. Having grown up in China and America under a Korean familiy, he has special interest in education and sociocultural development for the young second-generation Korean diaspora population. He will be in charge of programs development and founding an international school contextually relevant to the second generation Korean elementary to high school students growing up in Indonesia. As the program develops and enlarges, it will extend the educational opportunities to the local Indonesian population residing in remote areas with limited access to education.

With the joining of three new members bringing in crucial assets to the committee, the team is filled with renewed hope and confidence that the added talents and perspectives will empower the team with further dynamism, that greater passion will develop as inspiration within individual members combine, and that the challenges and obstacles the committee may encounter will be more effectively overcome in one, unified spirit. Please remain posted regarding JIU committee’s work as the newly assembled team will generate many beautiful stories throughout 2014 and as more dedicated coworkers will join the committee in the coming days to make JIU committee a perfect and able team to execute the given task.