01
Economic Power
in Canada
Business owners and specialists across industries, in one room. Building the real influence of the Korean community, city by city.
About
A small fire. A small room. A long conversation.
The Name
One word, two meanings.
MODAK carries a Korean word inside it — 모닥. It was the name Koreans once gave to the small fire villagers gathered around on summer evenings, sharing stories until the night grew long.
It also holds a verb — to gather, and to take up. A place where people come together and hold meaning between them, together.
Five letters in English carry the same intent.
M
Meaningful
Conversation that leaves something behind.
O
Open
Background, industry, and age set aside at the door.
D
Dialogue
Exchange, not lecture. Everyone brings their own.
A
And
All four must hold together for the room to work.
K
Kindness
The baseline we set for one another before anything else.
Three goals
What we are trying to shape.
02
Next Generation
Making room
Students, those with potential but without access, those without mentors. A seat at the fire that would otherwise be closed to them.
03
A Korean Voice
in Canadian society
Beyond individual achievement — a shared presence. The kind that shifts what Canadian rooms sound like when Koreans are in them.
How the room works
A room for those who bring something.
MODAK is for people who arrive with something to offer, not only something to ask. Exclusive, but not gate-keeping. The door isn't locked — givers simply find one another.
Our form is dialogue, not lecture. Not one voice speaking to many, but each voice bringing a story, and conversation shaped from that ground. Above all, kindness — held as the first agreement, before anything else.
How it began
One evening, in December 2025.
Marco and Kyusik met at a gathering of the BC Korean Professors' Association, hosted by Professor Gene Moo Lee. The talks that night — scholars making their own fields feel alive — held the two of them long past the end of the program.
They walked out with a question rather than a plan: could a room like this be kept open, on purpose, on a smaller scale? A room where accomplished Koreans could speak plainly with one another around a single insight, and where the next person coming up could quietly find their way in.
Several gatherings later, MODAK is being incorporated as a non-profit. Each evening still carries the same intent as the one that started it — small, unhurried, insight-first, and worth staying for.
The hosts
Those who keep the room.
Co-host
Marco Lee
Otherhand Ventures · Vinker Foods
Builds brands and commerce systems between Korea and Canada. Comes to the room with a founder's questions.
Co-host
Kyusik Shin
Richards Buell Sutton LLP
A Vancouver lawyer. Holds the structure that lets the conversation stay honest.