Sungsup Ra

Visiting Professor and Former Chief Sector Officer KDI School of Public Policy and Management (South Korea) and Stanford University (USA); Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Sungsup Ra is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management (KDI School). He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University for the 2025 calendar year. He also advises several institutions, including the International Financing Facility for Education, the Education University of Hong Kong, and the International Centre for Industrial Transformation. Additionally, he is an Industry Fellow at the NTU Entrepreneurship Academy, Singapore.  

Before joining KDI School in April 2024, Sungsup Ra was the Deputy Director General and Deputy Group Chief of the Sectors Group at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In this role, he led ADB-wide strategies, knowledge innovation, and sovereign operations across multiple sectors including agriculture, education, energy, health, finance, transport, urban development, and water. He oversaw key ADB initiatives such as climate financing, energy transition, addressing the learning crisis, food security, the rollout of the new operating model, and the management of 29 trust funds. 

With over 35 years of professional experience, including 23 years at ADB, Sungsup held leadership positions such as Chief Sector Officer for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Director of the South Asia Human and Social Development Division, and Director of the Pacific Operations Division. He also chaired the Education Sector Group, driving strategic education initiatives across Asia and the Pacific.   

As a strategic and innovative leader, he led high level policy dialogue with developing countries and significantly contributed to ADB’s recent expansion in the education sector. He introduced new financing modalities such as results-based lending and multi-tranche facility at first in the education sector. He pushed the boundaries of traditional education projects to support cross sectoral issues such as food crisis, youth unemployment, digital transformation, clean energy, vulnerable urban population, and road safety. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, he led ADB’s emergence response in health, education, and social protection in South Asia. He is actively involved in global initiatives such as the international financing facility for education, pandemic response and preparedness, and energy transition.  

Prior to ADB, Sungsup worked in both the public and private sectors, including roles at Samsung and the Korean National Pension. He has also taught at leading universities such as International Christian University in Tokyo, Korea University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.