Soo Youn (Julie) Park · Frontier AI, across borders and across the stack

00 · About

Zero to one, across borders.

Over seven years at SK Telecom, most of what I did was zero to one, always across borders and across every layer of the stack.

I built the world's first telco-specific LLM, founded the world's first five-party telecom AI joint venture, co-developed a computer-vision platform with AWS, and negotiated APAC's first gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure with NVIDIA, AWS, and Microsoft: the region's own Stargate. I work in Korean and English, and I'm currently an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School (Class of 2028).

More than any of it, what I love is the building itself: growing a little every day, chasing the next new thing, and above all doing it with other people. I'm in it for the whole ride with them, every high and low, and nothing gives me a bigger rush than the moment something finally goes from zero to one.

01 · By the numbers

Many have experienced generative AI. Few have built every layer of it.

#0^st

Industry-first telco-specific LLM

Pioneered from research to product

0

Operators, one founding alliance

1.3B subscribers across 5 continents

$0M

World's-first telecom AI JV

Syntelligence, UK-headquartered

0

Big-Tech partners, all four layers

NVIDIA · Amazon · Google · Microsoft · Anthropic · OpenAI

02 · Experience

From research to revenue, role by role.

2026 – 2028

Boston, MA

MBA Candidate

Harvard Business School · Class of 2028

Sharpening the management lens on a decade spent commercializing frontier AI, and mapping where the industry goes next.

2023 – Present

SK Telecom · Seoul

AI Strategy Manager

Global AI Strategy Division

Led SK Telecom's full-stack generative-AI business across all four layers; pioneered the industry-first telco-specific LLM, commercialized it into a cross-border JV, and drove GW-scale AI data centers.

→ See Projects a & b

2020 – 2022

SK Telecom · Seoul

AI Product Manager

Global Strategic Partnership Division

Planned and brought to market the AWS / Alexa computer-vision platform across four verticals, then extended it into Sullivan Finder with a Seoul city rollout MOU.

→ See Project c

2019 – 2020

SK Telecom · Seoul

Sales & Marketing Strategy Manager

Mobile Business Division

Grew 5G sales 10.9% across 30 stores using SQL-driven subscriber analysis; led Boost Park, a Gen-Z campaign that lifted AI subscriptions 7.8% across 120+ stores.

Education

Seoul · Tours, France

BBA & French Language and Literature

SungKyunKwan University

GPA 4.1 / 4.5 (Top 5%) · Fully funded exchange at the University of Tours, France.

03 · Signature work

The full stack, end to end.

Four layers of the generative-AI stack, one line and the proof for each. Tap a layer to open the evidence; the full story lives in the projects below.

01

Foundation Model

Drove the industry-first telco-specific LLM

+

Identified the need for a model that met operators' data-sovereignty rules and built the alliance to fund it, offering both proprietary (Anthropic, OpenAI) and open-source (Meta Llama) foundations.

Deutsche Telekom ↗

RCR Wireless ↗

SKT Newsroom ↗ Deep dive → Project a

02

Platform

Founded GTAA & Syntelligence: $37.5M JV, $2M revenue in 6 months

+

Productized the telco LLM at the API layer (SaaS / private / on-prem), then structured the five-party joint venture that turned it into a company. Flagship use case: detecting spam calls and deepfake voice fraud.

syntelligence.ai ↗

Four builds, four layers, one through-line: cross-border AI that ships.

a · Foundation & Platform

Building the world's first sovereign telco-LLM alliance

Global Telco AI Alliance (GTAA) → Syntelligence · SK Telecom with four global operators · 1.3B subscribers

Challenge

Global operators needed generative AI, but no foundation model met their data-sovereignty rules, and no single operator had the scale to build one alone.

Approach

Identified the need for a telco-specific model and built the alliance to fund it.

Secured the founding partners: Deutsche Telekom (Europe), SoftBank (Japan), e& (Middle East), Singtel (SE Asia).
Negotiated with Anthropic, Meta & OpenAI for both proprietary and open-source models, so each operator could meet its own sovereignty rules.
Defined the fine-tuning schema, evaluation metrics, and SaaS / private / on-prem deployment options.
Productized the model at the API layer through six-month sprints across all five operators.

Outcome

$2M revenue in six months on a tier-based model with eight global enterprise clients.
Secured $37.5M to establish Syntelligence, the world's first five-party telecom JV (UK-HQ), structured through a negotiation that resolved technical, commercial & regulatory conflicts.
Delivered the keynote as lead speaker at MWC.

JV agreement signed @ DTW24 ↗

#1 in AI · Omdia ↗

Syntelligence ↗

in · View post ↗ Global Telco AI Alliance launch

GTAA unveiled at MWC 2024

in ↗

CEO Summit · JV signing

Backed by global leaders

syntelligence.ai ↗ Syntelligence brand

Syntelligence, the JV brand

in · View post ↗ GW-scale AI Data Center

APAC's gigawatt-scale AI hub

SKT Newsroom ↗ SKT HAEIN AI Data Center · GPUaaS

HAEIN · SKT AI DC GPUaaS

AIDC expansion → 1 GW ↗

Omdia · Sovereign AI Infra ↗

b · Infrastructure

A gigawatt-scale AI hub for APAC: "APAC's Stargate"

GW-Scale AI Data Center · SK Telecom with NVIDIA, Amazon & Microsoft

Challenge

AI compute demand in Asia was outstripping supply, but the region had no gigawatt-scale GPU hub. Colocation couldn't meet it, and building one meant aligning chipmakers, hyperscalers, and government, none on a single operator's timeline.

Approach

Drove the strategy to move beyond colocation, then elevated it into a national agenda.

Shaped a GPU-as-a-Service model, engaging NVIDIA, Amazon & Microsoft to build a gigawatt-scale APAC hub in Korea.
Co-pitched it with the Korean government and Amazon to position Korea as Asia's AI infrastructure hub.

Outcome

Reframed Korea as a candidate hub for APAC AI infrastructure.
Supported the letter-of-intent process with NVIDIA, AWS & Microsoft.

c · AI Service

Productizing a computer-vision platform across four verticals

Computer Vision Platform-as-a-Service (CVPaaS) · SK Telecom with AWS & Amazon Alexa

Challenge

Video data is heavy. Legacy on-prem systems buckled under it and SaaS alternatives ran on prohibitively expensive private cloud. The market needed a public-cloud computer-vision platform with both performance and economics, and no one had productized one.

Approach

Co-developed and commercialized the platform with AWS and Amazon Alexa's video-intelligence team.

Co-authored the PRDs and defined use cases across four verticals: safety/surveillance, commerce, healthcare, media.
Translated non-deterministic deep-learning outputs into deterministic product behavior via accuracy/latency benchmarks and confidence thresholds.
Led the shift from legacy on-prem VMS to a hybrid public-cloud model.
Built the commercialization strategy end to end: product mix, a benchmarked licensing model, and the global go-to-market.

Outcome

A productized, public-cloud computer-vision platform commercialized across four enterprise verticals, co-built with Amazon and taken from architecture to global market.

Business Wire ↗

Mobile World Live ↗

AI Times ↗

in · View post ↗ Computer Vision Platform

CVPaaS, co-built with AWS

SKT Newsroom ↗ AWS and SK Telecom develop computer vision platform

AWS & SKT · computer-vision platform

KED Global ↗

Amazon Global Store on 11st

in · View post ↗ T Universe subscription platform

T Universe · 1M MAU in 6 months

KED Global ↗

Launch update ↗

d · Commerce & Subscription

Scaling the SK and Amazon partnership across commerce & subscription

Amazon Global Store on 11st & T Universe · SK Telecom with Amazon

Challenge

The SK Telecom and Amazon partnership needed to become consumer products and revenue: a cross-border commerce offering and an AI-powered subscription platform, each requiring alignment across companies with different incentives (Amazon, SK Telecom, 11st) and a business case strong enough to win Amazon's commitment.

Approach

Coordinated Amazon, SK Telecom & 11st to launch the Amazon Global Store on 11st, securing $30M in commercial support from Amazon via a business-impact simulation.
Developed the business strategy for T Universe, an AI-powered subscription platform co-developed with Amazon, and contributed to the revenue-sharing negotiations behind it.

Outcome

Amazon Global Store launched on 11st, backed by $30M in committed support from Amazon.
T Universe reached one million MAU in six months.

In the press & on the record

A selection of milestones, from MWC keynotes to JV signings and analyst reports. Click any to read the original.

SKT ranked #1 in AI · Omdia ↗

JV agreement signed @ DTW24 ↗

TM Forum · Global Telco AI Roundtable ↗

GTAA inaugural meeting @ MWC24 ↗

LOI with Deutsche Telekom ↗

HSBC: SKT, an Asia AI first-mover ↗

Vertical AI and the Telco AI Platform ↗

05 · Recognition

Credentials & awards.

Harvard Business School

MBA, Class of 2028.

U.S. National Interest Waiver

Granted in 2024 by the U.S. government in recognition of telecom-AI expertise judged to serve the U.S. national interest.

SK Telecom · 5 Performance Awards

Recognized five times between 2021 and 2024 for global AI partnerships and strategy.

Feb 2024

SK Telecom Champion Award

Key contributor to the official launch of the Global Telco AI Alliance, aligning five telecom companies across technical, business, and legal teams, driving the coordination that produced the joint venture and opened a new domain of telecom-specific AI.

Dec 2023

Global AI / Tech Champion Award

For shaping the strategic vision for telecom-centric generative AI and turning it into a global collaboration model, aligning five telecom leaders across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Aug 2023

CEO Special Recognition

For leading key partnerships and playing a central role in shaping SK Telecom's strategic direction in generative AI.

Apr 2022

SK Telecom Service Champion Award

"Enhancing Business Competitiveness through Global Collaboration," for driving high-impact partnerships with global tech companies across computer vision and commerce, at the group level.

Oct 2021

Corporate Business Development Award

For driving SK Telecom's global expansion through strategic partnerships and cross-border initiatives.

06 · Off the clock

"By day, I commercialize AI. By night, I'm usually someone else entirely."

🎭

On a stage

I direct and perform. I've staged Incendies with a cast of 80, and created Marriage, a barrier-free musical built so audiences with disabilities are part of the story, not an afterthought. Hand me a character and I'll disappear into it.

🎶

In a key

A hopeless music lover who will find a reason to sing in any room, rehearsed or not.

🚲

In motion

Happiest moving: on a bike, in the pool, or in a new city with a one-way ticket and a loose plan.

07 · Writing & Ideas

The Contextual Frontier

Essays on the gap between information and action.

Featured · Live

Context-Aware AI: Why LLMs Alone Aren't Enough

On the empty space between information and action. An LLM drafts the follow-up email in ten seconds. Then I open Mail, find the address, copy, paste, send, and the model never knew who I'd met, what we discussed, or how I write. That small friction is the biggest limit in AI today.

Read the essay →

"AI has all but closed the information gap. The gap it hasn't closed is the one between information and action, and that's a different problem entirely. You don't cross it with a faster model, lower latency, or higher accuracy. You cross it with an AI that understands your context. I believe context-aware AI is the next frontier. This is where I track it."

Upcoming in the series

Inside Meta's Ray-Ban strategy: why glasses are the next platform.

The trap of the chatbot abstraction, and what real, persistent context looks like.

NVIDIA Cosmos and the Physical AI stack: AI infrastructure's next layer.

Apple vs Google vs OpenAI: three roads to personal context.

What we trade for an AI that sees what we see.

Why the operators that missed the platform era may own the context layer.

What looks different about the AI landscape from inside business school.

Open the journal →

Egocentric AIContextual AIPhysical AIInfrastructureTelco

I turn frontier AI into business, across borders and across all four layers of the stack.

Zero to one, across borders.

Many have experienced generative AI. Few have built every layer of it.

From research to revenue, role by role.

MBA Candidate

AI Strategy Manager

AI Product Manager

Sales & Marketing Strategy Manager

BBA & French Language and Literature

The full stack, end to end.

Four builds, four layers, one through-line: cross-border AI that ships.

Building the world's first sovereign telco-LLM alliance

A gigawatt-scale AI hub for APAC: "APAC's Stargate"

Productizing a computer-vision platform across four verticals

Scaling the SK and Amazon partnership across commerce & subscription

Credentials & awards.

Harvard Business School

U.S. National Interest Waiver

SK Telecom · 5 Performance Awards

SK Telecom Champion Award

Global AI / Tech Champion Award

CEO Special Recognition

SK Telecom Service Champion Award

Corporate Business Development Award

On a stage

In a key

In motion

The Contextual Frontier

Context-Aware AI: Why LLMs Alone Aren't Enough

Let's build something
that matters.

I turn frontier AI into business, across borders and across all four layers of the stack.

Zero to one, across borders.

Many have experienced generative AI. Few have built every layer of it.

From research to revenue, role by role.

MBA Candidate

AI Strategy Manager

AI Product Manager

Sales & Marketing Strategy Manager

BBA & French Language and Literature

The full stack, end to end.

Four builds, four layers, one through-line: cross-border AI that ships.

Building the world's first sovereign telco-LLM alliance

A gigawatt-scale AI hub for APAC: "APAC's Stargate"

Productizing a computer-vision platform across four verticals

Scaling the SK and Amazon partnership across commerce & subscription

Credentials & awards.

Harvard Business School

U.S. National Interest Waiver

SK Telecom · 5 Performance Awards

SK Telecom Champion Award

Global AI / Tech Champion Award

CEO Special Recognition

SK Telecom Service Champion Award

Corporate Business Development Award

On a stage

In a key

In motion

The Contextual Frontier

Context-Aware AI: Why LLMs Alone Aren't Enough

Let's build somethingthat matters.

Let's build something
that matters.