Founding Chairman Chey Jong-hyon

(1929-1998)

Year of Graduation: 1961

Major: Economics (MA)

Thesis: A Review on Non-Agricultural Income of the Farm Population in the United States

• Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Seoul National University (1950)
• BS in Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison (1956)
• MA in Economics, University of Chicago (1961)
• Vice President, Sunkyong Textiles (1962)
• CEO and President, Sunkyong Textiles (1970-1973)
• Chairman, Sunkyong Group (1973)
• Chairman, Suwon Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1973-1987)
• Establishment of Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies (1974)
• CEO, Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies (1977-1998)
• CEO and Chairman, Sunkyong (1978)
• CEO and President, Yugong (1980-1984)
• CEO and Chairman, Yugong (1984)
• Chairman, The Federation of Korean Industries (1993-1995, 1997-1998)
• International Executive of the Year Award, Academy of International Business (AIB) (1995)
• CEO and Chairman, SKC (1997)
• CEO and Chairman, SK Engineering & Construction (1998)

List of awards Chey Jong-hyon earned:

• Prime Minister Award (1971)
• Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit (1972)
• Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit (1973, 1997)
• CEO of the Year Award (1980)
• International Executive of the Year Award (1995)
• Order of Civil Merit, Mugunghwa Medal (1998)
• New Millenium Entrepreneurship Award (2001)

Chey Jong-hyon was born in Suwŏn, Kyŏnggi Province in 1929. He graduated from Suwŏn Agriculture and Forestry High School (present-day Suwon Agricultural Life Science High School) and began college in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry of Seoul National University in 1950 before departing to study overseas in the US in 1954. He graduated with a BS in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison before coming to the University of Chicago, where he earned an MA in Economics. These early study-abroad experiences in the US laid the foundations for Chey Jong-hyon to be recognized as an economist equipped with robust theoretical knowledge. With the passing of his father in 1962, Chey Jong-hyon returned to Korea, where he was appointed Vice President of Sunkyong Textiles, a company led by Choi Jong Kun, the founding CEO and the older brother of Chey Jong-hyon. Over 25 years the Former Chairman Chey Jong-hyon, who took over management after his older brother Choi Jong Kun, laid the foundation for SK as a global corporation and representative of Korea by turning crisis into opportunities for growth amid the rapidly changing domestic and international circumstances. When Jong-hyon took over the management of company in 1973, the business was facing a potentially fatal scenario due to the combination of geopolitical and oil crises. Nevertheless, Chey Jong-hyon used these crises as an opportunity to improve the group’s constitution and leap forward. In March 1979 he combined theory with actual business management experience, and created SKMS, an absolutely unprecedented business management system, through a four-year process of research and discussion. The establishment of the ‘business management system’ in the 1970s was not only unique in Korea, but was also globally unprecedented. Applying the vertical integration model to the production of petrochemicals, film, thread, and fiber, Chey Jong-hyun set forth an ambitious goal of turning Sunkyong into a world-class energy and chemical company. In November 1980, taking the first step in entering the oil business, a long-cherished dream, he acquired the Korea Oil Corporation (KOCO), a public company with a chronic deficit problem, and achieved a stable supply of crude oil and the rapid normalization of management. Following this, he advanced into the oil-field development business and thus made Korea, devoid of resources, into an oil-producing country. While expanding the oil refining business, he was finally able to complete the vertical integration of the oil industry. Furthermore, he entered the mobile communication business and, through his excellent insight and bold decisions, grew the SK group into one of the top five corporate groups in Korea.

Chey Jong-hyon also left a pioneering trail in the area of social contribution. He believed that individuals of talent would determine Korea’s future and established the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS) in 1974 with the goal of cultivating world-class scholars. The selection of students to receive overseas scholarships with unconditional support and pre-matriculation orientations has been the unique tradition for the Foundation’s scholarship project ever since KFAS was established. Having begun with the one hundred year goal to “build a world class nation, world class citizens, and an industrial society founded on intellectual excellence,” the KFAS’s world-class scholar training program has produced a total of 4,261 scholarship students, including 861 PhD degree holders, as of June 2024. 

Chey Jong-hyon is the recipient of the Prime Minister Award (1971), Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit (1972), Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit (1973, 1997), CEO of the Year Award (1980), International Executive of the Year Award (1995), Order of Civil Merit, Mugunghwa Medal (1998), James A. Van Fleet Award (1998), and the posthumously awarded New Millenium Entrepreneurship Award (2001). His important writings include Discipline the Mind, Move the Body (『마음을 다스리고 몸을 움직여라』 Maŭm ŭl tasŭrigo mom ŭl umjigyŏra!, 1988) and Those Who Challenge Themselves Control the Future (『도전하는 자가 미래를 지배한다』 Tojŏn hanŭn cha ka mirae rŭl chibae handa, 1992). Chey Jong-hyun passed away from lung cancer on August 26, 1998.