Light, Camera, Leadership: Sarah Chung

Sarah Chung has forged her own definition of the word ‘career-woman’: a woman that can pursue any career. From the entertainment industry to a successful jewelry boutique to an author, Chung has truly done it all and made her mark on every corner of the globe. 

Chung was born in Seoul, South Korea, growing up there until her university years. Since her childhood, she recalls being very ambitious, feeling inspired by the business and marketing field very early in life. Mesmerized by the world of business that she had discovered, she pursued her early interests, graduating from her Korean university with a master’s degree in international business. During her time at university, she found herself particularly drawn to the media and entertainment sector of her studies, noting that she “found a crossroads between her interests and her talent” in the field. Immediately captivated by this career path, Chung felt the need to delve deeper, searching extensively for a fit place and opportunity to expand on it. Although she loved her home of South Korea, she felt a profound longing to go beyond the borders of what her small home country had to offer her. “I love Korea but I have always wanted to study and work in the States at some point in my life,” she said. Chung pursued her academic and career goals, moving to California, USA in 1999 to earn her MBA degree. Even as a young and bright-eyed university graduate, she demonstrated an immensely strong determination and will to chase her goals – no matter how far or difficult – that would follow her throughout the rest of her life.

Living and studying in the United States for the first time, Chung was impressed by the foreign teaching style at her American university. “From what I experienced, I found that U.S. education is much more focused on individual contributions. Everyone is expected to express their own ideas and opinions and contribute to the class,” she recalled. “This was different from the education environment I experienced in Korea which is more focused on the teacher or professor providing knowledge to the students.” Chung was incredibly drawn to the openness to growth that her education provided her with, recalling her entertainment and media MBA program as a transformative time in her life Another aspect of her university that contributed to her unparalleled MBA experience for her was studying in the center of the entertainment industry: Los Angeles, California. Exploring the world of media and entertainment in the birthplace of Hollywood and the film industry was unforgettable, and Chung wanted it to be “never-ending”. So, it was a no-brainer decision for Chung when she was offered a job at Warner Brothers in Burbank Headquarters for international theatrical distribution following her MBA program graduation.

“I always knew that I wanted to study in the US, but I didn’t know I would end up living there for over 20 years,” Chung said, laughing. When she began her job at Warner Brothers, Chung had no idea that this would be only the beginning of her long and extraordinary career journey in the world of entertainment and media. There was not just one, specific event that kept Chung in the United States, she notes, but rather a series of opportunities that helped guide and forge her professional path in life. “I loved my job so much and one opportunity led me to another, and I got promoted year after year, so I ended up staying,” she describes. “And I’m really glad I did.” 

Warner Brothers – Chung’s first workplace – began her professional career and left a profound impact on every aspect of her life. Playing a role in the massive blockbuster successes of Harry Potter and The Matrix trilogy as a first-timer in entertainment was an experience that Chung says solidified her lifelong love for the media industry. At Warner Brothers, Chung’s expertise was in the International Theatrical Distribution Department, overseeing the company’s vital role in over 60 different countries across the globe. “What movies will do well in what locations, what other movies are competitors of ours, what kind of marketing activities or strategies need to be developed and how many theaters do we need to book, how many reels do we have to send”: these were just a couple of questions that Chung had to base her everyday decisions off of. Chung was a key player in spreading the joy and wonder of Warner Brothers’s most successful films to locations in every corner of the globe, cross-navigating factors like international culture and even having to take trips across the globe to fulfill her role. “This was at a time where films were distributed physically so things were a bit more difficult,” Chung recalls. “Typically, we would use courier services to get film reels to locations across the globe, but there was this one time where that wasn’t quick enough to get the reels of ‘Constantine’ in time for Korea’s opening night. I remember I was called in by my boss to get on a plane the next day to deliver the reels directly to the Warner Brothers Korean office,” Chung says, laughing.

Throughout her six years of contribution at Warner Brothers, Chung’s daily life was characterized by the sensational glitz and glamor of film and the world of cinema that LA opened her up to. “I, in capital letters, LOVED my work,” Chung notes, reflecting on her sensational career in California. “But I really wanted to test myself and try the skills that I had gained in another media and entertainment hub.” Chung knew that outside of Burbank, there was an entire world of entertainment and culture that was waiting for her arrival, one of them being the famous Big Apple. New York and Los Angeles are known as the two most pivotal global locations for the entertainment industry, with Chung stating, “If you can survive in New York, you can survive anywhere.” Chung didn’t just want to survive in the entertainment industry – she wanted to thrive. She viewed the Empire State as an atmosphere of growth to unlock the potential she knew she possessed, striving to harness the tools gathered throughout her time at Warner Brothers and elevate them to another level. “My career was born in LA, and I wanted to grow it in New York,” said Chung.

Not only did she bring suitcases to New York with her, but Chung brought her overflowing confidence and skill, hoping to apply her knowledge to other forms of media and entertainment that she had not experienced previously. She did just that, taking on a Digital Media Finance job at NBC Universal in Rockefeller Center. Chung was great at every job she took on, and clearly, the Fortune 200 companies thought so too. After just one year at 30 Rock, Chung received a phone call that would steer her into a path that she would eventually follow for over ten years. A job recruiter had discovered Chung’s impressive resumé, and was immediately driven to pursue her well-rounded and multifaceted knowledge and experience in the industry for a major client . “I initially turned down the job,” Chung recalled, noting that she had only spent one brief year at NBC Universal. “I was happy with NBC and I didn’t feel ready to leave.” Nonetheless, the job recruiter’s persistence instilled a lingering curiosity in Chung, pulling at her ambition to explore the unknown. “One thing that really sparked my interest was the mention of my experience in theatrical distribution and finance – two important qualities that the job recruiter said his client was searching for.” Following her own goals of diving head-first into new atmospheres of growth, Chung began the process of pursuing the job that she was described as the “perfect person” for. After four rounds of meticulous interviews, Sarah Chung was officially named the newest Viacom Networks executive. 

At Viacom Networks (now known as Paramount Global), a parent company of MTV, Nickelodeon and more, Chung played an incredibly vital role in managing cable content distribution for a company with the biggest channel lineup in the entire cable industry in the US – overseeing Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Spike, and over twenty more. As an executive at the company, she sold and distributed MTV content to operators including entertainment giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, taking on a giant role in the company’s success. 

Working in some of the biggest Fortune 200 corporate companies in America for over 20 years, Chung gained an invaluable toolbox of skills at her disposal that she felt were not only applicable to corporate jobs, but to the real world as well. Harnessing the tools of distribution, finance, and media literacy that she had meticulously grown for two decades, Chung forged a completely new path: her own small business. “Working for Warner Brothers, NBC Universal, and Viacom Networks, I knew that I had built up and paved an invaluable career path in my field and I was a great employee in my field,” Chung explains. “But I wanted to test my skill set to see if what I learned would be applicable in a real-life setting in every single area of a business.” Using her own experience as an example, Chung explains the fact that most employees are often limited to seeing only the scope of what they are working on rather than the entire picture. “If you are in finance, you typically only see the area that you are working on: finance,” she says. “But if you run a small business, you have to do everything from marketing and finance to sales and dealing with customers on a front line. And that is really what I wanted to do: turn everything I learned as a business professional in a well-structured company to a street-smart business owner.” Chung had spent decades working under large well-structured corporations, offering her knowledge, smarts, and skills to oversee these giants’ successes. Mobilizing these same tools that had grown her professional career thus far would prove to be indispensable in Chung’s entrepreneurship journey as well. 

Chung did exactly that, running a successful jewelry business in New York City. She owned and operated a boutique on the Upper West Side as well as frequently participating in large and renowned pop-ups like Chelsea Market. Although many may believe that jewelry and films possess no similarities, Chung believes otherwise. “I think that jewelry is a part of entertainment,” she explains. “Every human is made up of their own content and jewelry is a medium to creatively express yourself. I’ve always been drawn to the creativity aspect of things, so I really enjoyed my time with jewelry.”

At the same time she was running her successful small business, Chung was running another outlet of expression: a magazine column. As someone with extensive experience and multifaceted expertise in the business world, Chung had a growing desire to share her knowledge with the world. “After I left the media industry in corporate America, I had a big thought growing inside me everyday,” she says. “I was always thinking about how I could contribute to the community and how I could contribute my two decades worth of skills and experiences to the world.” Growing up in South Korea but pursuing a wonderful career in the United States, Chung wanted to connect her diverse experiences and her two cultures to help the next generation of Korean-Americans find their own path. She didn’t intend to be a writer, but when the perfect opportunity landed on her desk, Chung knew that writing would be the perfect way to express the thoughts that had been growing within her. “One day, a publisher of a magazine in the NY/NJ area reached out to me and pitched a column for the next generation of Korean-Americans based on my real-work experience,” Chung recalls. “She said that my in-depth knowledge of both cultures would effectively prepare the next generation for what they could expect in corporate America and provide a solid understanding of the business world.”  

Chung notes that the main driver that drew her towards writing her monthly column was the knowledge gap that she sought to fill. “The first generation of Korean immigrants, no matter how well they were educated in Korea and no matter what jobs they had there, ended up working blue-collar jobs when they came to the United States,” Chung explains. “So when their children grew up and wanted to get into corporate America, there was a big knowledge gap and they would not be able to help their children out in terms of career advice or coaching.” 

After three years of monthly columns, Chung compiled her experiences into a book of lessons, experiences, and advice for the next generation: “Navigating Culture Clashes to Succeed in Corporate America: The Career Chronicle: Metamorphosis of an International Student to a VP”. Written in both Korean and English, Chung’s book has all the tools necessary to manage every part of the path towards making it big in the corporate world. Chung embarked on a book tour in 2022, hosting signings and seminars across the United States as well as in the two most important cities for her career: Los Angeles and New York. 

In the same year, Chung embarked on a trans-global move to the city of Tokyo, Japan, taking on yet another place to make her mark. Commencing her new journey in a new atmosphere, Chung set off on a mission for her second book about cultural intelligence and cultural business. “Getting to experience another culture that I never imagined I would be able to experience is a great opportunity,” Chung explains. “Growing up in Seoul, having a long successful career in the United States, and now living in Japan, I can tell how these cultures are different and at the same time why culture is important to know.” The book is set to be released in early 2025.

Throughout her long and successful careers in numerous different fields, Chung has often been praised for taking on so many “different” jobs. However, Chung believes that they are all intertwined under one common theme: content. “I believe that each of us is content,” she says. “Our experiences, our life journeys, our lessons – these make up the content in us, and it is important to find what content you are seeking.” Chung brings in the concept of “funness” and how everybody searching for a career should seek to find it. “Funness”, as she describes, is different from fun. Fun has turned into an adjective, describing activities and experiences. Comparatively, “funness” is the quality that characterizes these activities or adjectives that are so well-loved. “You need to seek funness – I think that’s what’s guided me throughout my career,” Chung says. “Finding where your funness resides is where you will find your growth and success.”

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