Dr. Sohn is the President of KOICA. He previously served as Vice President for External Cooperation, Professor(former dean) of Graduate School of Public Governance and Civic Engagement and director of Center for International Development Cooperation (CIDEC), Kyung Hee University. He had also served as the president of Korean Association of International Development & Cooperation (KAIDEC), editor for Korean Political Science Review and Vice President of Korean Political Science Association. Outside his academic engagements, he had a position of non-standing board director of KOICA and ODA policy advisor to Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 2012, he had been a civilian member of Prime Minister Office’s Working Committee for International Development Cooperation. In 2016, he has been appointed as a member of the Committee for International Development Cooperation of Prime Minister Office. He has actively participated in the civil society advocacy activities as a member of Global Facilitating Group (GFG) of Open Forum for CSOs Development and member of the Operation Committee of Korean Civil Society Forum of International Development Forum (KoFID), and co-organizer of Busan Civil Society Forum held during the HLF4.

His research interests are political economy of development, international development cooperation, development NGOs, and development evaluation. He is currently leading a research team working on the subject of development partnership supported by the Social Science Korea (SSK) program of Korean Research Foundation. His articles have appeared in World Development, Pacific Focus, Korea Observer, Korean Journal of International Studies, and Korean Political Science Review. His book, Civil Society and International Development Cooperation: Current Situation and Challenges of Korean Development NGOs(in Korean), was published in 2015. His current research project focuses on analyzing the evaluation results of development partnership projects.