Sung Won Sohn

Sung Won Sohn was reappointed to the Board by Mayor Eric Garcetti for the term ending June 30, 2026. He was originally appointed by Mayor Garcetti on November 18, 2015.

Mr. Sohn is President of SS Economics. He recently retired from California State University, Channel Islands where he served as the Smith Professor of Economics and as the director of the Institute for Global Economic Research (IGER).

Presently, he is on the boards of Western Alliance Bancorporation and National Association of Corporate Directors of Southern California.

Mr. Sohn was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hanmi Financial Corporation, a commercial bank in Los Angeles, California. Before joining Hanmi in 2005, Mr. Sohn was an Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Officer of Wells Fargo Banks.

Mr. Sohn was educated at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Business School.

Prior to his tenure at Wells Fargo, Mr. Sohn was a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors in The White House. He was responsible for economic and legislative matters pertaining to The Federal Reserve and financial markets. Mr. Sohn has also been a tenured college professor in the Pennsylvania State University System.

He is the author of books, Global Financial Crisis and Exit Strategy (2009) and The New Economy (2014).

In 2006, The Wall Street Journal featured a story naming Mr. Sohn as the most accurate economist in the United States. In 2010, the Journal named him as one of the five best forecasters in the country. In 2012, he ranked third. This is one of the most prestigious honors in the economics profession. In 2002, he was named to Time Magazine’s Board of Economists. In 2001, Bloomberg News selected Mr. Sohn as one of the five most accurate forecasters in the United States. In 2002, Blue Chip Publications picked him as the most accurate forecaster for the Western States.

He was chosen as one of the 100 most influential Minnesotans of the 20th century by the state’s largest daily newspaper, The Star Tribune. Others on the list included Charles Lindberg, Sinclair Lewis, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Charles Schultz of the Peanuts cartoon.

He was a commissioner at the Port of LA, the nation’s largest port. He also served on the boards of Forever 21, First California Bancorporation, Ministers Mutual Life Insurance Company, L.A. Music Center (Performing Arts), Children’s Bureau of Los Angeles, Foreign Affairs Council of LA, Park Nicollet Health Services, The Blake School, Minnesota Community College System, North Memorial Medical Center, Harvard Business School Association Minnesota, Crystal Evangelical Free Church, Children’s Theater Company and School, and American Heart Association Minnesota.