hankyoreh

Evan Thomas, a business development manager at Seoul Robotics, sits for a photo at the company’s office in Seoul’s Gangnam District on May 14, 2024. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

“My father was an attorney who specialized in immigration. Many of his clients were Korean. When they settled in Canada, they became family friends.”  

Evan Thomas, 27, has spent the last three years as the business development manager at Seoul Robotics. He has a special connection to Korea. His father was an immigration attorney who helped Koreans settle in Canada. Now he lives and works in Korea.  

“My father probably went on at least 50 business trips to Korea in the 1990s and early 2000s. When I told him I wanted to work in Korea, he wholeheartedly supported me.”   

After graduating from McGill University, Thomas says he learned of a program offered by the Korean Ministry of Education that awarded scholarships for international students. He was one of four Canadian students that made the cut. That was how he attended graduate school at the Seoul National University Business School. He then saw a job posting on the university bulletin about a position in Seoul Robotics. He applied and got the job. 

Thomas believes that if the Korean government opened the doors to more international students, the country would see an influx of many more talented people who love Korea.  

Seoul Robotics is a domestic startup that has made strides in self-driving software for industrial purposes. Companies outside Korea seek Seoul Robotics services in autonomy through infrastructure (ATI), which employs self-driving technology for facilities such as factories, storage facilities and parking lots. Thomas manages relationships with clients in the US and in Europe, and even oversees software installation.  

“When we finish a long-term project that takes months, I feel a sense of achievement. I’m the lone foreigner in the business development team, which puts me in a position to better deliver Seoul Robotics’ high-tech products to the global market.”  

Aside from his work at the tech firm, Thomas has appeared on Korean reality shows, exhibiting his fluent Korean. Some say that he was a Korean in his past life. However, he says he’s reminded that he’s a foreigner when he’s denied housing loans or prohibited from trading stocks. Yet he still enjoys living in Seoul. 

“I’m never bored here. During my last vacation, I rode my bike all the way down to Busan,” he said. 

“When I told people I was moving here six years ago, everybody asked me, ‘Why are you moving there?’ This was before the world knew about BTS, ‘Squid Game,’ and Son Heung-min. There are now lots of opportunities for Korea to launch itself onto the global stage. That also applies to me, as someone who works in Korea,” he said.  

“Maybe someday I’ll end up as the chief of Seoul Robotics’ Canada branch,” he said with a laugh.  

By Jung Yu-gyung, staff reporter 

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