Ahn Cheol-soo, South Korean physician, academic, and politician
Ahn Cheol-soo (Korean: 안철수 [an tɕʰʌl.s͈u]; born 26 February 1962) is a South Korean politician, medical doctor, businessperson, and software entrepreneur.
Prior to his career in politics, Ahn founded AhnLab, Inc., an antivirus software company, in 1995. He was chairman of the board and Chief Learning Officer of AhnLab until September 2012, and remains the company's largest stakeholder. Prior to entering politics, Ahn served as dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University until September 2012.
Ahn made his first official entry into politics as an independent candidate in the 2012 South Korean presidential election, polling strongly before dropping out to support the ultimately unsuccessful campaign of Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in. During the 2017 South Korean presidential election, Ahn ran as a third party candidate, losing to Moon Jae-in and winning 21.4% of the popular vote. Afterwards, Ahn ran in the 2018 and 2021 elections for Mayor of Seoul. Ahn was considered a left-wing politician when he entered politics in 2012, then considered a centrist politician by his 2017 presidential bid, and is now considered a centrist or right-wing politician.In 2014, Ahn became one of the co-founders and co-leaders of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, now known as the Democratic Party of Korea, before stepping down from party leadership after a few months and then defecting from the party in 2015. In 2016, he was one of the co-founders of the centrist People Party and often served as party leader until the People Party and the Bareun Party merged to become the Bareunmirae Party in February 2018. In 2020, Ahn split from the Bareunmirae Party and created a new party, also called the People Party, which Ahn continues to be party leader of to the present day.
On 1 November 2021, Ahn announced his bid in the 2022 South Korean presidential election as a candidate of the current version of the People Party. On 4 November Ahn was confirmed as the People Party nominee. On March 3, Ahn dropped out of the race, endorsing Yoon Suk-yeol.