Also chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry

The Korea Post media, celebrating the 37th anniversary of its founding this year, publishes an extensive 12-page Special Report on the SK Group with a special focus on Chairman Chey Tae-won and his predecessors. Here are excerpts from the lengthy Special Report (12 pages including the Cover) and the pictures of each page of the Special Report.—Ed.

In sharp contrast with most of his predecessors, Chairman Chey Tae-won of the SK Business Group (also chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry) appears to be very much liked by the world leaders—as well as President Yoon Suk-yeol of the Republic of Korea.

Chey had a virtual meeting with President Joe Biden of the United States on July 26 this year.

President Yoon Suk-yeol met with Chairman Chey Tae-won and other top business leaders of Korea at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul on April 18 this year, and pledged full support for the business community.
Chey heads the Korea
Chamber of Commerce & Industry as well as SK, the second largest business group in Korea after Samsung.

Chairman Chey is considered the most international cooperation-minded business leader in Korea as most of predecessors, mostly the old generation, are not that widely exposed to the international community.

Chairman Chey disclosed an ambitious plan on July 26 this year to invest an additional US$22 billion in the United States in a virtual meeting with President Joe Biden of the United States.

Biden welcomed the announcement, calling it one of the most "significant investments" ever seen in the U.S.

Biden's one-on-one virtual meeting with Chairman Chey took place at the White House in the U.S., also involving U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

Biden took part virtually as he continued to recover from COVID-19 since being diagnosed late in the preceding week.

SK Group presently is known to operate more than 120 businesses across the energy, life sciences, advanced materials, mobility, and semiconductors industries. As part of the broader SK network, SK also has access to global perspectives and resources that help the business group fulfill its vision for each of the markets the SK Group is in. The SK Group companies include:

SKC (plus 5 subsidiaries), SK biopharmaceuticals, (plus 2 subsidiaries)

SK broadband (plus 1 subsidiary), SK chemicals (plus 3 subsidiaries), SK Ecoplant (plus 1 subsidiary), SK ES (plus 11 subsidiaries), SK energy, SK gas (plus 6 subsidiaries), SK geo centric, SK Hynix (plus 12 subsidiaries), SK Inc., SK Inc. C&C, SK Inc. Materials (plus 6 subsidiaries), SK innovation (plus 8 subsidiaries), SK Lubricants (plus 1 subsidiary), SK Networks (plus 6 subsidiaries), SK On (plus 5 subsidiaries), SK Pharmteco (plus 4 subsidiaries), SK Siltron (plus 1 subsidiary), SK Square (plus 15 subsidiaries), and SK Telecom (plus 7 subsidiaries).

Originally, SK derives its name from Sun Kyung (선경 in Korean and 鮮京 in Chinese characters) founded and led by Chey Jong-kun who is the elder brother of Chey Jong-hyun whose son, Chey Tae-won, is now the leader of the SK Business Group.

Twenty-four years ago, at the outset of 1998, public relations leader of the SK Group told this writer, “Our boss has been much annoyed with the name of our company, Sun Kyung, which sounded like ‘Sunk Young,’ and we are changing the name.” He said that many people, especially those in the English-speaking world pronounced it in a way that sounded like, “Sunk young.”

Who would wish to “sink young” which means “die young”? It is because ‘to be sunk’ among Koreans means ‘to die.’

So, on the 8th of January that year (1998), the then Chairman Chey Jong-hyun changed the name to the “SK Group” from the Sunkyung Group.

Chairman Chey had a meeting on Jan. 5, 1998 at the then Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel in eastern Seoul with a total of over 1,000 senior executives of the business group and declared the change of name from Sun Kyung to SK Business Group. It was the first time in the then 45-year history of the SK Group.

 

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