Sunny K. Park
Sunny K. Park is President of the Korean War United Nations Veterans Memorial Foundation.
He is also President of Global Sun Investments, founder and President of the Great American
Scholarship Foundation, and founder and President of the American Korean Friendship Society,
which he established in 1996 to strengthen the bonds between the American and Korean peoples.
He serves on the board of Georgia Banking Company and has served on the SK Battery America
Advisory Board.
Originally from South Korea, Mr. Park immigrated to the United States in 1974. In 1983 he
founded GBM, a facilities-services company he built into a national enterprise operating in 23
major U.S. cities and led until its sale in 2022. He set, and has met, a personal goal of paying $1
million annually in income tax, his measure of gratitude to the country that gave him his start.
Today he dedicates his efforts to constructing the first Korean War United Nations Veterans
Memorial in Seoul.
Mr. Park's public service includes appointment by President George W. Bush as a Commissioner
on the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, service as
Vice Chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority, and selection as a Presidential Elector from
Georgia in 2004 and 2008.
Through the Sunny K. Park Family Foundation, he supports causes ranging from scholarships for
young Americans to the Korean War veterans memorials in Washington and Seoul. He serves or
has served on the boards of the National Guard Youth Foundation, the USO, the National Center
for Civil and Human Rights, Zoo Atlanta, the Carter Center Board of Councilors, the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C., the
Rotary Club of Atlanta, Berry College, Junior Achievement, the Sandy Springs Development
Authority, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Shepherd Center, the Emory University Board
of Visitors, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and the Korea Defense Veterans
Association. He served as President of the National Korean American Federation in 1991,
chaired the 1992 Overseas Korean Conference in Berlin, and is a member of the Van Fleet
Leadership Council at The Korea Society.
His recognition includes the USO Patriot Award, the Americanism Medal of the Daughters of
the American Revolution, the Patrick Henry Trophy, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, inductions
into the KATUSA Hall of Fame and the Atlanta Business Hall of Fame, recognition among
Atlanta's most influential leaders across many years, Small Businessperson of the Year, a
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation's Freedom Award
in 2020, the Liberty Award, a Leadership Award in 2022, and the Envision and Unity Award in 2023.
Though he never earned a college degree, Mr. Park holds an honorary doctorate from Belhaven
University and has delivered commencement addresses at Kennesaw State University, Berry
College, and Belhaven University. He attends The Church of The Apostles in Atlanta.