The farewell ceremony for Cho Heung-seek, the 24^th president of KIHASA, was held at Sejong hall, KIHASA, on April 29 at 11 a.m. The ceremony was attended, in keeping with social distancing, by a small group of KIHASA managers and staff in key positions, with the rest of the staff attending online. After watching videos showing his typical day at KIHASA, prepared as a surprise for him, the leaving president received a plaque of appreciation from vice president Kang Hye-Kyu, who handed it to him on behalf of all KIHASA staff. In his farewell address, president Cho said, “An organization is rooted in its history and identity. And I was lucky to have served as the president of KIHASA at a critical time when it was at the finishing line of its half-century history and was starting a new history for the next century of health and welfare for the country.” At the end of his address, he called the names of each and every staff of KIHASA, all 241, in a gesture to show his sincere appreciation for those who have walked together with him for the past 3 years.

President Cho, after taking office on March 21, 2018, has revised the institute’s Corporate Identity to the current one and adopted “people with people in mind” as the institute’s new slogan, re-establishing its identity as a future-oriented think tank with its roots firmly held in its traditions. During his tenure, he helped add 16 more personnel to KIHASA’s manpower and in 2020 helped raise the institute’s status by helping it to be selected as number 1 think tank in the political/social sector among top 100 think tanks. In the same year he proclaimed the reestablishment of KIHASA’s founding year to be one year earlier than previously known as historical records were found to shed light on KIHASA’s hidden year by then. He also made a history by correcting the chronological order of KIHASA presidency, having been inaugurated as the 13^th president but leaving as the 24^th president.

As soon as his tenure began, President Cho organized an inclusive welfare research group in KIHASA and worked on specifying a national vision for inclusive welfare state, running an experts forum for inclusive welfare. He established “Connect for Social Health Protection,” a regional network for promoting social health protection, and organized, among others, the KIHASA-INED International Conference(Jan. 15, 2019), the International Population Conference(Oct. 28, 2019), the Online International Conference on Introducing Sickness Benefits(Dec. 15, 2020), and the International Conference Commemorating the 50+1^st Anniversary.

President Cho donated 739 books right after his inauguration and additional 107 books immediately before his farewell ceremony, a total of 846 books, to the KIHASA library, to encourage junior researchers to keep up the good work.