Gihoon Sung

Naperville, Ill.
Joint degree program

Gihoon “G” Sung is fascinated by risk.

He discovered this interest while taking a risk management course as an undergraduate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He describes the field as the study of “what types of risks are involved in making a decision and how those risks are assessed, and using that knowledge to predict how populations will manage the risks.”

Not surprisingly, studying risk within health care also appeals to Sung.

After several years working as a health care actuary in the insurance and consulting sector, Sung saw the importance of experiencing a breadth of roles in health care delivery. He came to Yale to broaden his vision. He wants his understanding of the health care system to integrate the viewpoints of all the major stakeholders (such as providers, pharmaceutical companies, payers, patients and academia) and he feels that the School of Public Health will help him accomplish that.

Sung spent last year at the Yale School of Management and was impressed with the experience. People were willing to sit down and discuss his professional goals and improving skill sets.

“I’d like to be a thought leader in the [health care] area, to look at things more holistically and make recommendations to further health care in the United States,” he says.