Dr Han Seung-soo, KBE, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea joined the Board of Standard Chartered PLC as an Independent Non-Executive Director on 1 January 2010.

Dr. Han has a distinguished political, diplomatic and administrative career serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, and Industry and Trade before serving as Prime Minister in 2008 and 2009. He also served as Korean Ambassador to the United States, Chief of Staff to the President, President of the 56th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Climate Change and Chairman of the 2009 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris.

He is currently on the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation as well as Founding Chair of the High-Level Expert Panel on Water and Disaster/UNSGAB.

Educated at Yonsei University (BA), Seoul National University (MPA) and the University of York, England (Ph.D.1968/D.Univ.1997), and before his election to the National Assembly in 1988, he had a distinguished academic career as Professor of Economics at Seoul National University (1970-88), and taught and/or did research on economics at the Universities of York (1965-68), Cambridge (Emmanuel; 1968-70), Harvard (1985-86) and Tokyo (1986-87).

He has many publications both in Korean and English, the most recent one being Beyond the Shadow of 9/11; A Year at the United Nations General Assembly (SAIS, Washington, DC, 2007).

Dr. Han received, among many foreign and domestic prizes and decorations, the 6th European Communities Prize (1971) for his doctoral thesis on European integration, the Nobel Peace Prize (2001) on behalf of the United Nations and an Honorary Knighthood (KBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.