Michele Kang
Yongmee Michele Kang is an American businesswoman, philanthropist, investor, and owner of multiple professional football teams. She became vice president of the e-Business unit of Northrop Grumman in 2000. In 2008, she founded Cognosante, a medical technology company, and Cognosante Ventures, a venture capital firm.
Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Kang attended the Ewha Womans University. During her first year of business administration studies at the Sogang University in 1980, the student-led protest for democracy, the Gwangju Uprising, broke out, which prompted her to move to the United States. She entered the University of Chicago, and graduated in economics. She then obtained her master's degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management.
Since 2020, Kang has turned her attention to promoting and investing in women's football. In 2022, she became the majority owner of Washington Spirit, which competes in the NWSL; the London City Lionesses, which was promoted to the Women's Super League at the end of the 2024–25 season; and OL Lyonnes, formerly known as Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, which competes in the French Première Ligue and the UEFA Women's Champions League; she is also a minority owner at the men's section Olympique Lyonnais. In 2024, she established London-based Kynisca as an umbrella management group for her multi-club ownership structure. She has been described as "the first tycoon of women's football."
On 30 June 2025, Michele Kang was appointed president of Olympique Lyonnais, and chairperson of the club's owner company, Eagle Football Group.
Early life
Kang was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, the youngest of three sisters. She studied at the Ewha Womans University, a private institute in Seoul. Her ambitions had been to become either an opera singer, a professional basketball player, or a teacher. Encouraged by her father to study business administration, she entered Sogang University in Seoul in 1980. The only female student, she topped her class in the first year, but realized that she could have better opportunities in the U.S.Korean women had little opportunity for high-profile careers. As she related about her growing up, women were expected to get a proper education but not for a profession; even if one was highly educated, they were expected to ultimately get married and raise their families. In her own words:
Even if you graduate with the highest score, you would probably be an assistant to the chairman. Then, when you get married, you will be voluntarily or involuntarily asked to leave.In 1981, Kang's parents allowed her to move abroad to pursue her academic pursuits. Using a loan originally intended for her future wedding, she moved to Chicago, enrolling as an economics major at the University of Chicago. After obtaining her bachelor's degree, she earned a master's degree in public and private management at the Yale University School of Organization and Management.
Business career
Beginning
Kang initially worked as a management consultant for various companies related to information technology. She then became a partner with Ernst & Young, specializing in the high-tech and telecommunications industries.Northrop Grumman
Kang joined Northrop Grumman, the American aerospace and defense technology company, in 2000 as a senior executive. In 2003, she became vice president of their Health & Science Solutions unit. During her four-year leadership, the company was estimated to have grown four-fold.Rexahn Pharmaceuticals
Following the resignation of two directors in 2006, Kang, along with Charles Beever and Kwang Soo Cheong, were elected to the board of directors at Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, headquartered at Rockville, Maryland. Rexahn and Ochupirre Pharma, Inc., a privately held clinical-state ophthalmic biopharmaceutical company, merged in 2020.Cognosante
In 2008, Kang resigned from Northrop Grumman to start her own company which she named in "the empty room above her garage". Her aim for the company was "to disrupt and challenge the status quo in the U.S. healthcare system". The corporation works with federal and state health agencies to "expand access to care, improve care delivery, address social determinants of health, and ensure safety and security through multi-faceted technology and customer experience solutions." Kang has said that she is focused on developing a pipeline of opportunities that "will directly improve the lives of veterans, military spouses, persons with disabilities, seniors and residents in underserved communities."On 15 April 2024, Michele sold Cognosante to Accenture Federal Services for undisclosed financial terms. The transaction was completed in May 2024.
Eagle Football Holdings Limited
was founded in 2022 and is owned by John Textor for the management of his majority-owned football clubs, Botafogo FR in Brazil, Olympique Lyonnais in France and RWDM Brussels in Belgium. Kang joined the company's board of directors on 21 March 2023, becoming a minority owner. By then, the company faced a sharp financial decline of 19% from the previous year, amounting to $540 million in debts. Mainly due to Kang's contributions, the company saw 24% increase in revenue by 2024, stability of the expenditure and cutting the total deficit to £422 million.OL Groupe/Eagle Football Group
The Eagle Football Group was established in 1999 to manage Olympique Lyonnais and the club's assets. Textor acquired the majority ownership in 2022 and the company became a subsidiary of Eagle Football Holdings. By 2023, the OL Groupe's management of the club was critically penurious that the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion issued a warning, if the company could not provide an additional €60 million to the club, it could face sanction.Textor became chairperson of the OL Groupe in May 2023, and his major task was resolving the club's financial problems. One solution was to sell LDLC arena, a multi-purpose indoor stadium, either as full or 40 percent purchase, and its women's football teams. The company had Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, affiliated with the Lyon men's team, and Seattle Reign FC that competed in the US National Women's Soccer League. It was an opportunity for Kang to acquire the teams, but could not go for OL Reign since she already had Washington Sprit, which also competes in NWSL. It is general rule, but sometimes controversial system, in football that different teams owned by a single entity should not play in the same competition. On 12 April 2023, Kang announced a plan to get a majority ownership for Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, she would get 52 percent of the total share and the remaining retained by OL Groupe. On 8 September 2023, OL Groupe announced the induction of Kang to its board of directors following the exit of Durcesio Mello. By 2025, Kang became the third largest investor in the Eagle Football Group.
Olympique Lyonnais
In October 2024, DNCG announced that Olympique Lyonnais were provisionally demoted from the top-tier competition, Ligue 1 to Ligue 2 for the next season due to financial mismanagement having a debt of about £200 million. The team ended at sixth place in the Ligue 1 2024–25 season, making them qualify for competing in the UEFA Europa League 2025–26 season. On 24 June 2025, DNCG confirmed the demotion, and the team was relegated to Ligue 2 and disqualified from UEFA competition. In an interview on TV Globo, Textor announced his new plan and relinquishing the leadership of Lyon, saying, "I've got very good partners in the Eagle Football Group shareholders who are going to take a lead on dealing with some of the issues that I have frankly not been very good at dealing with."On 30 June 2025, the club announced that Kang had been appointed its president. Under Kang's leadership, the club reduced its financial debts by selling Rayan Cherki and Maxence Caqueret, and reducing the salaries of Alexandre Lacazette and Anthony Lopes. The DNCG appeal committee re-evaluated the club's holdings, and on 9 July, announced revocation of the relegation. The club became eligible to compete in both Ligue 1 and UEFA Europa League.
Kynisca
When Kang acquired Olympique Lyonnais Féminin in May 2023, her plan was to create a separate global women's football organization. On 27 July 2024, Kang announced the launch of Kynisca, a London-based company that would serve as the umbrella group for her multi-team sports ownership and sports science efforts. The company was named after Cynisca of Sparta, the first woman to win an event in the ancient Olympic Games. The announcement claimed that the organization was the first international group dedicated to women's association football. The launch was announced in Paris during the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Kang also announced the launch of $50 million in seed and matching funding for the Kynisca Innovation Hub, a non-profit research initiative specialized in female sports training.In October 2024, Kang's Kynisca hired former FC Barcelona Femení sporting director and Royal Spanish Football Federation women's football head Markel Zubizarreta to be Kynisca's global sporting director, overseeing all of its component clubs.
On 19 November 2024, Kang pledged to donate $30 million to U.S. Soccer over the next five years, the largest philanthropic investment in U.S. Soccer's women's and girls' program and the most generous donation ever made to U.S. Soccer by a woman.
On 31 October 2024, Kynisca led a $2 million seed funding round for IDA Sports, a company producing cleats and turf shoes for female athletes.
On 4 April 2025, Kang announced at the SheBelieves Summit that the operations of the Kynisca Innovation Hub will integrate into U.S. Soccer's Soccer Forward Foundation, amounting a $25 million investment to support U.S. Soccer's efforts. This brings Kang's total investment to the Federation to $55 million.