Kim began his career as a
mergers and acquisitions banker at
Goldman Sachs after completing his MBA at Harvard. In 1995, he joined
Salomon Smith Barney, where he became a managing director and COO of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking. He later joined the
Carlyle Group as president of Carlyle Asia until 2005. raising $6.5 billion for its most recent Fund V, becoming the largest independent
private equity firm in Asia. Under Kim's leadership, MBK Partners was named one of Time's World's Best Companies of 2024. Kim chairs the
Haverford College board of managers, as well as the MBK Scholarship Foundation. He also sits on the boards of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York Public Library, and
Carnegie Hall. In 2022, the novel was named a U.S. best-selling novel, and in October 2023, it was announced that it would be adapted into a film and produced by Anonymous Content and Anthology Studios. In October 2025, Kim again faced allegations of tax evasion during an audit by the
National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee. Lawmakers claimed that "Kim [had] earned significant profits domestically while paying little to no taxes", and called for a tax investigation; MBK Partners denied the allegations, saying it had fully complied with Korean laws. In April 2025, media reports indicated that
Homeplus, a MBK Partners portfolio company, and MBK Partners were being investigated by regulatory authorities for alleged financial regulation violations. Both Homeplus and MBK Partners management reportedly denied all allegations. To support affected small businesses, Kim provided several hundred billion won in personal funds to suppliers and acted as a personal guarantor for debtor-in-possession financing. ==Philanthropy==