Ahn Cheol-soo may yet be a rookie in the political arena but holds a decades-long reputation as Korea’s leading software entrepreneur and science professor.

Born in Busan in 1962, Ahn majored in medicine at Seoul National University and engaged himself in that field after graduation.

However, his path curved during his postgraduate years, as he took an interest in computer antivirus vaccines.

In 1995, he established AhnLab which grew to be Korea’s top antivirus developer and also won him the image as a technology pioneer.

The software guru’s name thus became an icon of challenge and success, especially for IT venture businessmen and students of natural science and engineering.

He was also recognized as a social celebrity, through his participation in the non-profit Beautiful Foundation, where he met human rights activist Park Won-soon.

Since 2008, Ahn has mostly stayed in academia as dean of SNU’s Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology.

However, he had pledged to step down from his current post upon announcing his presidential bid.

Ahn’s name first appeared in the political arena during the Seoul mayoral by-election season last September.

Though the scholar stayed away from politics, he nevertheless appealed to the younger generation and liberal figures through his hosting of “Youth Concert,” a talk show series, to discuss social issues with students across the nation.

Ahn, however, renounced his candidacy and offered support to non-party candidate and colleague Park Won-soon, who ended victorious in the race.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)