Former Nexon America chief joins inspiring industrial design firm Daylight (exclusive)

Former Nexon America head Daniel Kim has returned to his roots as an industrial designer at a design boutique called Daylight. That company is a small, nine-person startup that aims to change the world not only with groundbreaking designs for cool products but also by doing work for ambitious nonprofit projects. The products designed by Daylight range from a green water filtration system to a new Logitech webcam. The business is an inspiring blend of both capitalism and altruism.

The work is a far cry away from running Nexon America, the U.S. arm of Asian online game publisher Nexon. Over six years, Kim helped build that company’s business in the North American market as free-to-play games were catching on around the globe. He eventually rose to chief executive officer of Nexon America, but he left at the end of last year. Recently, he joined the team at Daylight, which was familiar to him. Daylight was founded in 2007 by a team of former Ideo industrial designers that Kim worked with when he was part of the industrial design giant. Now he is rejoining the San Francisco firm as a partner in a new South Korean office.