How did a U.S.-educated academic end up leading the negotiations in South Korea's biggest bank merger? Economist Choi Buhm Soo, 44, was toiling away as a fellow at the Korea Development Institute, the country's elite think tank, in 1998 when he was asked to advise the agency overseeing South Korea's bank restructuring. Late last year the merger of Kookmin Bank and HCB began to founder over the selection of a CEO, and Choi's agency, the Financial Supervisory Commission, needed a neutral outsider to mediate. Choi - who earned his Ph.D. at Yale - got the job.

"In the West there's so much experience of mergers, but here in Korea we haven't developed the skills yet," Choi says. He notes that before his arrival the two banks were proceeding "like a railway line - always parallel," despite their agreement to merge. To bring Kookmin and HCB into accord, Choi excluded both CEOs from the discussions and pushed ahead with the other terms of the deal, temporarily shelving the question of who would run the new bank. Last month, four months into the negotiations, both sides agreed that Kookmin, in which Goldman Sachs has a sizable stake, would acquire HCB, in which an ING unit holds a similarly large share, for 2.7 trillion won ($2 billion). The resulting entity will be called Kookmin Bank; with $121 billion in assets, it will be the world's 60th-largest bank. A New York Stock Exchange listing of 10 percent of the new bank's equity is planned for October.

An NYSE listing requires a CEO, so the selection will have to be finalized before October. Choi says it's unlikely to be made much sooner than that: "If we raise the issue of the new CEO right now, both banks again have to be involved in so many disputes, so many rumors. We haven't determined when yet. If we say, it will provoke another very tough round of disputes, which will almost surely hurt the value of those banks."

Though Kookmin is the senior partner in the deal, most investors prefer HCB's CEO, Kim Jung Tae, who is widely considered to be South Korea's best, most reform-minded banker. Kookmin executives, however, are adamant that their chief, Kim Sang Hoon, should run the show.

Choi is optimistic that when the CEO controversy is settled, South Korea's first world-class bank will emerge. "There must be one leading bird who positions on the peak," he says. "I hope this bank can become that leading bird."

Then Choi can go back to his research.