Items11The creator’s order
  1. 1Ilhan NewIlhan NewBorn 15 Jan 1895Pharmaceuticals. Ilhan New returned from the United States and founded Yuhan Corporation in Seoul in 1926, under Japanese colonial rule, to make medicines for Koreans. He was also active in the independence movement. Unusually for Korean business, he handed management to professionals rather than…0i
  2. 2Lee Byung-chulLee Byung-chulBorn 12 Feb 1910Samsung. Lee founded Samsung as a trading company in Daegu in 1938, then moved into sugar refining and wool textiles to replace imports after the Korean War. He launched Samsung Electronics in 1969 and in 1983 committed the group to memory chips, the bet that later made it a global leader. His…0i
  3. 3Koo In-hwoiKoo In-hwoiBorn 27 Aug 1907LG. Koo co-founded Lucky Chemical in Busan in 1947, first making a face cream and then plastic goods such as combs and toothbrushes. In 1958 he set up GoldStar, which produced the first radio made in South Korea, followed by fridges and televisions. That chemicals-to-electronics path became the LG…0i
  4. 4Chung Ju-yungChung Ju-yungBorn 25 Nov 1915Hyundai. Chung, a farmer's son from what is now North Korea, ran a rice shop and a car repair garage before founding Hyundai's construction business in 1947. Government road, dam and overseas contracts built it, and in the early 1970s he started a shipyard at Ulsan while the first ships were still…0i
  5. 5Chung Se-yungChung Se-yungBorn 6 Aug 1928Cars. Chung Se-yung, Chung Ju-yung's younger brother, led Hyundai Motor as it moved from assembling Ford models to designing its own car. The Pony of 1975, styled in Italy and built with Japanese engine technology, was South Korea's first mass-produced domestic car and was soon exported. The…0i
  6. 6Park Tae-joonPark Tae-joonBorn 24 Oct 1927Steel. Park, a former army general, was chosen by President Park Chung-hee to found the state steel company POSCO in 1968, when foreign lenders thought a Korean integrated steelworks unviable. Funded partly by Japanese post-colonial settlement money, the Pohang works opened in 1973 and became one…0i
  7. 7Shin Kyuk-hoShin Kyuk-hoBorn 3 Nov 1921Lotte. Shin, who emigrated to Japan as a young man, founded Lotte there in 1948 selling chewing gum, then brought the business to South Korea in 1967 after diplomatic relations were restored. Lotte grew into confectionery, hotels, department stores, chemicals and the Lotte World theme park,…0i
  8. 8Kim Woo-choongKim Woo-choongBorn 19 Dec 1936Daewoo. Kim founded Daewoo as a small textile trader in 1967 and expanded at astonishing speed into shipbuilding, cars and electronics, often by taking over failing firms with state encouragement and borrowed money. His book about the world being wide and full of work was a bestseller. Daewoo…0
  9. 9Lee Kun-heeLee Kun-heeBorn 9 Jan 1942Samsung. Lee succeeded his father in 1987 and, in a 1993 speech in Frankfurt, told managers to change everything except their wives and children, starting a drive to make Samsung compete on quality rather than price. Samsung became the world's leading memory-chip maker and a major phone brand. He…0i
  10. 10Chung Mong-kooChung Mong-kooBorn 19 Mar 1938Cars. Chung Mong-koo took over Hyundai Motor as the Hyundai Group split after the 1997 financial crisis, absorbed the bankrupt Kia, and pushed quality hard enough to offer a ten-year powertrain warranty in the United States, turning a cheap brand into a credible one. He was convicted of…0i