Steven Koo – An Interview With SmartCompany

Steve Koo is an incredible photographer – his pictures are beautiful, capturing every special moment from our wedding. Plus he made everyone feel right at home throughout the day!

He specializes in modern, nontraditional wedding photojournalism as well as fine art portraiture photography, traveling both domestically and internationally for work.

Early Life and Education

Koo was born and raised in Somers, New York. He earned both a Bachelor’s and Law Degree from Penn’s Wharton School before going on to join Boston College as Legal Assistant/Attorney before being appointed Compliance Administrator of their Athletic programs in 2001.

Steven Koo was raised in Houston, Texas after his parents immigrated from South Korea. He attended The University of Texas, graduating with honors with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering. Subsequently he studied dentistry at University of Texas Health Science Center Houston and earned his DDS in 2007. Steven now practices alongside his partner at Piney Point Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and strives to offer his patients the highest level of care possible.

Professional Career

Steven Koo has served as Boston College’s athletics compliance administrator since 2002. A certified public accountant, he earned both his undergraduate economics degree from Penn’s Wharton School and law degree at Brooklyn Law School.

He serves as an adjunct professor of corporate finance at Fordham University and is a member of the CFA Institute. Additionally, he provides fairness opinions and solvency opinions on private companies, portfolio companies of private equity funds, intellectual property assets and other complex securities using Monte Carlo Simulation and option pricing models.

Patients describe him as caring, trustworthy and attentive. As a fellow of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and clinical instructor at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital and West Houston Hospital as well as advisor to University of Texas Health Science Center Dental School he serves his patients well.

Achievement and Honors

Koo is co-founder and chief technology officer of cybersecurity company DTEX Systems, which he established in 2014. In an interview with SmartCompany, he revealed that DTEX currently boasts approximately 200 customers around the globe including government organizations, large banks and Fortune500 firms. Human behavior, which he states as the root cause of hacks, was his focus in 2021 when he won South Australian state Pearcey award for Entrepreneur of the Year and went on to compete against national winners from other states for national title. He received congratulations from South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill before attending national ceremony online with family in attendance hosted by Pearcey Foundation; these awards are considered Australia’s most prestigious tech entrepreneurial awards.

This event serves as a springboard to successful businesses, with several national winners having now become listed on NASDAQ or Toronto Stock Exchange.

Personal Life

Koo has written for Yale Review, Missouri Review and Village Voice and earned fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts Vermont Studio Center New York State Writers Institute. In addition, he taught writing at NYU Lehman College-CUNY Lehman and Quinnipiac Universities respectively and currently serves as assistant teaching professor of English.

Nature Communications recently appointed him scientific editor, where he oversees manuscripts in photonics and metamaterials research. Additionally, he works at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research where his focus includes two-dimensional semiconductor research for optical spectroscopy and quantum computing applications.

Koo serves on NYU’s Stern Executive Board and works to forge relationships between it and business communities worldwide. In addition, he chairs Chailease Group which comprises leasing companies Chailease and Yellowstone Holding.

Net Worth

Koo is a self-made multimillionaire who owns multiple real estate and entertainment properties, co-founding Dreamodels (a modeling agency) in Hong Kong and regularly attending high-profile fashion shows – often sporting Christian Louboutin shoes!

In 2010, he performed at the Ultra Music Festival, an EDM festival held annually in Miami, Florida. He is considered to be one of the leading DJs representing Korea.

He is an active stock trader, owning 28,696 Las Vegas Sands Corp stocks worth $573,920 as of 6 May 2014. In 15 years he has made five trades of these shares; Oei Hui-lan was his mother’s socialite and hostess; Wellington was briefly President of China for an interim period.