At Yurie Systems Inc., which he founded, Kim pioneered a revolutionary ATM switch – no, not the automated teller machine but a device most people use but are unlikely to have heard of called the asynchronous transfer mode. In 1998, he sold Yurie to Lucent Technologies for billion, of which his share was 0 million – one reason why the Korean-born immigrant can rate highly in the philanthropic world, with a strong focus on raising technology standards.
His Information Technology Endowment Fund has made contributions to Johns Hopkins University ($1 million), Stanford and other schools. The reason why the University of Maryland named an engineering building after him was not because he’s an alumnus, but because in 2016 he pledged million towards its construction and faculty research.
Kim is one of the founding partners of Venture Philanthropy Partners, an investment organization helping youth of low-income families. He is also a minority owner of Washington’s Monumental Sports and Entertainment (See Ted Leonsis).
