Summary
Chey Jong-hyon, the second chairman of SK Group (founder’s successor), is the father of Chey Tae-won, the chairman of SK Group, and the younger brother of Chey Jong-gun, the founder. He was born in 1929 in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and graduated from Suwon Agricultural and Forestry Middle School. In 1952, while attending the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at Seoul National University, he went to study in the United States and transferred to the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1956. Three years later, in 1959, he completed a master’s degree in economics at the University of Chicago and then returned to South Korea. The lessons he learned about liberal market economies during his studies in the U.S. greatly influenced his management activities.
After returning from the U.S., he was appointed as a director of Sunkyong Textile in 1962 and became vice president in November of the same year, starting his involvement in the company’s management. Following the death of the founder Chey Jong-gun from lung cancer in 1973, Chey Jong-hyon took over the leadership of the Sunkyong Group. Although he was not the founder, he is recognized for his significant contributions to the company’s early growth and received treatment akin to that of a founder. At that time, the Sunkyong Group had potential but was not a large company.
In 1975, he declared vertical integration from oil to textiles and began to grow Sunkyong into an energy and comprehensive chemical company. In 1980, he acquired management rights of Korea Petroleum Corporation, propelling the group to the fifth-largest conglomerate in Korea, and was appointed as the president of Korea Petroleum Corporation (now SK Energy). Under his leadership, SK Energy grew into a global company with the world’s largest oil refinery and a complex petrochemical plant. From 1980, he also prepared to enter the information and communication business and acquired Korea Mobile Telecommunications, the second mobile communication public company, after the launch of the Kim Young-sam government in 1993.
Apart from his main business, he was also active in scholarship programs and economic organizations. He became a sponsor of the MBC Scholarship Quiz in 1973 and continued programs such as scholarships for students in need. In 1974, he established the Korea Higher Education Foundation using his personal funds. He was elected as the 8th, 9th, and 10th president of the Suwon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, served as the chairman of the Korea-Brazil Economic Cooperation Committee, honorary consul of Colombia, vice-chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, director of the Korea Economic Research Institute, and chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.
Timeline
▲ January 1929 = Born in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
▲ 1950 = Graduated from Suwon Agricultural and Forestry Middle School.
▲ 1952 = Dropped out from the Department of Agricultural Machinery at Seoul National University.
▲ 1956 = Graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the U.S. and completed a master’s degree in economics at the University of Chicago.
▲ November 1962 = Joined Sunkyong Textile as a director, then appointed as vice president.
▲ 1970 = Became president of Sunkyong Group.
▲ November 1973 = Elevated to chairman of the group following the death of Chey Jong-gun.
▲ 1973 = Became the representative director of Sunkyong Synthetic Fiber and started sponsoring MBC Cultural Broadcasting’s Janghak Quiz.
▲ 1980 = Appointed as the president of Korea Petroleum Corporation.
▲ 1983 = Became vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.
▲ 1984 = Appointed as the chairman and representative director of SK Corporation.
▲ 1987 = Served as the director of the Korea Economic Research Institute.
▲ 1993 = Became chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.
▲ June 1997 = Underwent lung cancer surgery in the United States.
▲ 1998 = Became chairman of SK Group following the company’s name change from Sunkyong Group.
▲ August 26, 1998 = Passed away from lung cancer at his home at the age of 68.
