Nimbility Expands Footprint in South Korea with Sarah Soo-Kyung
Nimbility continues to expand its business operations across APAC moving into 2023 with Sarah Soo-Kyung coming on board as Head of Korea.
Based out of Seoul, Sarah joins Nimbility to create and lead new business opportunities and develop relationships with key partners in this highly dynamic market for wines and spirits. With her French-Korean-American background, a degree in International Relations and over six years industry experience, Sarah brings a unique perspective and deep level of specialist market knowledge to the Nimbility team.
Prior to joining Nimbility Sarah founded wine curation start up ‘SoodeVie’ in 2017 working with importers and producers to highlight wine and spirits brands from around the world including France, US, Australia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany.
Growing up in Bordeaux, Sarah had an affinity to wine from a young age but her early career didn’t take her immediately into the industry. Her studies in International Relations instead took her into leadership development and foreign policy, first in Washington DC, later in Hawaii.
It was by participating in diplomatic events that she realized that wine is truly a diplomatic tool and she was struck by the inspiration to apply the same concept in Korea. Hosting hundreds of wine lectures and tastings over the past five years has allowed her to unite her customers, bringing them together to share the same passion.
Having lived in France, the US and Korea, and fluent in French, Korean and English with conversational Mandarin, Sarah has the unique ability to communicate clearly and be the “cultural” interpreter in a market like Korea.
“I’ve seen the Korean wine market grow tremendously since I started in 2017 although I think I was probably a bit early when I founded my start-up,” says Sarah. “Now I think the timing is ripe. Korean consumers are smart, open and thirsty. Korea has experienced such rapid economic growth, and we are now seeing a mature society that wants to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle. The food and beverage industry has parallelly grown, allowing consumers to demand high-quality choices. I believe this is the perfect time for Nimbility to expand into Korea and I am delighted to be the one representing and starting our first office in Seoul!”
Polly Aylwin-Foster, Founding Partner at Nimbility, added: “We are really excited to have Sarah come on board at Nimbility. We have been having some solid success in Korea over the last few years but have known from the off that to truly penetrate the market you need boots on the ground. With Sarah’s experience and industry connections we feel she is exactly the right person to take us to the next level in this dynamic APAC market.”
Sarah can be contacted at: sarah@nimbilityasia.com