Yoo Seong-min

Yoo had ran for the 2017 South Korean presidential election. Yoo faced a primary challenge against Nam Kyung-pil to be his party's nominee, but went onto win the presidential nomination of the Bareun Party in March 28, 2017.

Yoo went onto help form, and joined, the political group New Conservative Party for Reform (later permanently renamed the Bareun Party) during the 2016 South Korean political scandal. Bareun Party had enough defectors to become the fourth largest party in the National Assembly, with Yoo subsequently presented as "Candidate #4" in the 2017 presidential election.

Yoo was the floor leader for the Saenuri Party (renamed from Hannara) in the National Assembly, resigning from the position in July 2015.

Yoo and Park Geun-hye reportedly grew apart following Park's loss in the presidential nomination process to Lee Myung-bak in the primary of the 2007 presidential election.

Following greater separation from Park in 2007, as well as his open critical comments of President Park's policies such as opposing the President's promise to expand welfare without increasing taxes, Yoo was deselected from his party's nomination process in for the 2016 general election. President Park called Yoo to be engaging in a "politics of betrayal." He stood as an independent in the 2016 election and managed to win with nearly three quarters of the vote. He stated after the election in interview that he would return to the Saenuri Party and did so.

He was first elected as member of the National Assembly in 2004 as a member of the conservative Hannara Party as part of the proportional representation ticket. Yoo also served as Chief of Staff to future President and then-lawmaker/Chairman of the Hannara Party Park Geun-hye in 2005. He was considered her close aide. He went onto be elected three more times representing parts of Daegu.

After graduation Yoo worked as an economist at the Korea Development Institute (KDI) from 1987-2000. He then worked as President of the Youido Institute, a think-tank for then Hannara (now Liberty Korea) Party from 2000-2003.

Yoo was born in Daegu, and was the youngest child. His father was a farmer, but then became a judge and had been in politics for 8 years between 1985-1993. Yoo obtained his B.A. in Economics from Seoul National University in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1987. His focus was in industrial organization with a minor in economic theory and mathematical economics/econometrics. Yoo's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "Entry Into a Foreign Market: Theory and Evidence" and was supervised under Rachel McCulloch.

He has an elder brother and an elder sister. He and his wife have two adult children, a son (born 1982) and a daughter (born 1994).

Yoo Seong-min (Korean: 유승민 , born 7 January 1958), also known as Yoo Seung-min, is a South Korean economist and politician. Yoo is currently a member of the Korean National Assembly and was the Bareun Party's presidential nominee in the 2017 South Korean presidential election. He is the son of late Daegu court chief attorney and parliament member Yoo Soo-ho.