TaeHun Kim was born on March 17, 1970 in Inchon, South Korea and immigrated to the United States in 1971. He spent most of his childhood growing up in various areas of Brooklyn, New York, most notably Mill Basin.

In 1982, Kim was granted admission to attend Hunter College High School – a magnet school located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He graduated from Hunter with varsity letters in both baseball and volleyball and was awarded the US Marine Corp’s Distinguished Athlete Award in 1988.

Upon graduation from high school, Kim attended Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, where he majored in History with concentrations in East Asian, European and American studies. During his junior fall semester, Kim participated in an exchange program which allowed him to study Korean culture, Korean language and Korean history abroad at Yonsei University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Haverford in 1992 and, subsequently, his Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law in 1995.

Following graduation from law school, Kim worked as a securitization attorney for several years at Brown & Wood LLP, prior to the firm’s merger with Sidley Austin LLP. In March of 2001, he transitioned to Moody’s Investors Service, leaving his law office in the World Trade Center a few months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. After working for five years at the rating agency as a legal analyst and, later, a senior credit officer, Kim accepted an offer to work for HSBC Bank USA, National Association in 2006. He’s currently a senior vice president in the Structured Products Group at the bank.

The most significant change to Kim’s life came in October 2004, when he married Hyunjung Kim, who had been his sweetheart of seven years. They currently live in Englewood, New Jersey with their three beautiful children, Jacqueline, Jocelyn and Joseph.

Kim has been a speaker at the Arizona ABS Conference (February 2003), Moody’s Annual CDO Investor Briefing (September 2005) and the Bear Stearns Mortgage Credit Roundtable (December 2005). He is also the author of the following publications: “Moody’s Approach to Addressing Risks Specific to Institution-to-Retail Trust Certificates,” “The Use of Grantor Trusts in CDO Transactions,” “Netting and the Aaa Derivative Product Companies: the Netherlands” and “Moody’s Initial Views on the Dealer Form of Confirmation for Pay-As-You-Go Credit Derivative Transactions.”

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