1992
B
Taek-Geun Kwon
orn in South Korea, Taek-Geun Kwon spent most of his childhood living on the Canary Islands of Spain before coming to Andover in 1988. As a ninth-grader, Kwon made the varsity wrestling team, earned letters all four years, and placed at Interschols his lower, upper, and senior years. Kwon became co-captain alongside Larry Shin ’92 during his upper and senior years. During his upper year, Andover wrestling took fifth place out of 16 highly competitive teams. During his senior year, Kwon—along with co-captain Shin—led the team to an overall 7–4 record. Kwon was undefeated until separating his shoulder in the last match of the regular season, but he went on to place third at Interschols and qualified for the National Prep Wrestling Championships, where he pinned his first opponent before defaulting out due to injury. Kwon was also a valued member of the varsity golf team his upper year. “The Sultans of Swing” finished 1991 with a team
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record of 8–4. Kwon became known as Taek Kwon “Do” after shooting an impressive 37 against Middlesex. After Andover, Kwon wrestled at Cornell University, where he was a member of a top-10 nationally ranked team that won the Ivy League and EIWA Conference championships. Kwon is the founder and CEO of Zinnia Health, a leading behavioral and mental health company. Prior to founding Zinnia, Kwon was a managing director and operating partner of private equity firm TPG Capital, where he received the firm’s Global Leadership Award. Kwon was also an early executive of Hotwire. com, an online travel company acquired by InteractiveCorp/Expedia, where he received the Chairman’s Award. Kwon recently made a generous gift to Andover to name the wrestling lobby in the new Pan Athletic Center in memory of his good friend and wrestling co-captain Larry Shin, who passed away in 2021.
1992 wrestling team: Kwon is second row, fifth from left. 5