Meet a Colleague: Soo Yon Ryu Soo Yon Ryu serves as assistant professor of business administration.

W&L News Office
April 29, 2026

Q. How long have you worked at W&L?
This is my first year at W&L.

Q. What is your favorite course to teach, and why?
I currently teach Marketing Management at the Williams School. Marketing is a fascinating discipline that is often misunderstood. I find joy in debunking misconceptions around marketing and helping students understand its ubiquity and usefulness. However, I have an upcoming contender – I am currently preparing an on-campus spring term on consumer minimalism, which will include many hands-on activities as well as mindfulness practices.

Q. If you chose a different path, what other career would you have?
My dream was to become a handbag designer. In the past, I was very fortunate to have received a professional handbag making training and to have collaborated with one of my favorite brands. The dream remains to be realized!

Q. Where did you grow up?
Tunisia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Ukraine. It’s a long story. Let’s grab a coffee.

Q. What three words describe you best?
Intentional, reflective, organized.

Q. Name one person from history you would like to spend a day with and why.
I would choose Na Hye-seok, one of Korea’s first modern female artists and an early feminist thinker. She was a pioneer and, in many ways, a rebel. At a time when most Korean women had little access to formal education, she pursued higher education abroad. She spoke boldly about women’s rights, fully aware that doing so would carry serious social consequences. In a moment like ours, when polarization and division often feel overwhelming, I would like to ask her what it takes to remain principled without becoming hardened.

Q. Who is the most famous person you have met and where did you meet them?
I met a famous music YouTuber who is also a DJ, writer and a music critic. I met him in my parents’ house, because, well, he is my brother! All jokes aside, it was surreal to see my once reserved brother rise to fame doing what he loves.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
When someone begins a conversation that entails a revelation of some sort and ends up not revealing what it is. It keeps me up at night … and the next night.

Q. What do you like to do away from work?
I enjoy structuring thoughts and data. My Notion AI workspace keeps anything from my pedagogical ideas and research portfolio to reading notes and wardrobe database. My spreadsheets track every penny spent and every calorie consumed. My blog contains my thoughts and events since middle school. My calendar contains all activities in a day in 30-minute increments, since 2015. I acknowledge these are a bit excessive, but it brings me structure in an otherwise messy world.

Q. What is your least favorite chore at home?
While I enjoy most chores as a self-control restoration mechanism, one outlier is dishwashing. Big shout out to Travis in the maintenance team for installing the dishwasher before my move-in!

Q. What is your favorite family holiday tradition?
On January 1, my family goes out to see the first sunrise of the year. We make our wishes, come back home, and eat Tteokguk, a traditional Korean soup with thinly sliced rice cakes, that symbolizes good fortune.

Q. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done?
I went back to my beloved childhood home in my 20s. After arriving in Belgium, I took the local bus and had a nice conversation (with the help of Google translator) with an older woman sitting next to me. We got off at different stops, but there she was, standing next to my childhood home. It turns out, she was my ex-neighbor who has been living in the house next to mine! She finally recognized me and we had a good laugh about how I have grown. We went to my childhood home together, and the current resident invited us in to take a tour. Afterwards, with the permission of the current resident, I buried a small capsule in the garden that I am hoping to reclaim a few decades later.

Q. What do you pretend to hate but secretly love?
When someone cancels on me last minute.

Q. What is your all-time favorite food or food dish?
Charcuterie. If charcuterie is served, please don’t cancel on me last minute.

Q. What is your all-time favorite book?
“Contact” by Carl Sagan. Happens to be my favorite movie as well.

Q. What song or artist could you play on repeat?
Any Ella Fitzgerald songs turn life into a movie scene.

Q. Tell us something most people don’t know about you.
I ran a photography studio to pay for my master’s education. My special skill was editing pictures to reflect their aspirational or best self. If you need your wedding pictures, baby pictures, headshots taken, let’s talk over a nice plate of charcuterie.