There are also very rich people in Korea. Forbes has compiled a list of Korea’s richest people from 1st to 50th. In this post, I will only tell you from the 10th to the 1st place. Who is the richest person in Korea?
10. Kim Beom-su – Chairman of Kakao ($2.8 billion)
Kim Beom-soo, chairman of the Kakao Board of Directors, has a variety of experiences. He joined Samsung SDS in 1992 and founded Hangame in 1998. Hangame merged with Naver in 2000. However, after a while, he resigned from the CEO position and started KakaoTalk in 2010. The reason why KakaoTalk has introduced games from the beginning to the present is interpreted because the founder knows the game best, just as the founder made Hangame.
9. Chey Tae-won – SK Chairman ($2.8 billion)
Chairman Chey Tae-won is the chairman of SK Group. In addition, he currently serves as the president of the Korea Handball Association. He owns big companies such as SK Telecom and SK Hynix.
8. Hyuk-bin Kwon – Chairman of Smilegate ($2.9 billion)
Chairman Kwon Hyuk-bin established Smilegate in 2002 and has grown it into the most successful game company in Korea. He gained huge popularity by announcing a partnership with China’s Tencent, Cross Fire. Smilegate Holdings is also the largest shareholder of Sunday Rose. Through the Smile Gate Foundation, we have established schools in China and Vietnam to provide education in the IT field.
7. Park Yeon-cha – Chairman of Taekwang Industrial Co., Ltd. ($3.2 billion)
Born in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do, Chairman Park Yeon-cha is the Chairman of Taekwang Industrial Co., Ltd., an OEM company of Nike with more than 70,000 employees. Founded in 1971, Taekwang Industries currently has factories in Vietnam, Indonesia and China, producing more than 12% of Nike’s production.
6. Suh Kyung-bae – Chairman of Amorepacific ($3.5 billion)
Chairman Suh Kyung-bae is the chairman of Amore Pacific, a cosmetics and skincare company. He joined Pacific Chemicals in the 1980s, founded by his father, the late Chairman Seo Jeong-hwan, and the only of six children to show an interest in business and became CEO in 1997.
5. Chung Mong-koo – Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group ($4.3 billion)
As the chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, Korea’s largest automaker, he also owns a large stake in Hyundai Mobis, an auto parts company. He is the second son of the late Chairman Ju-Young Chung, who founded the Hyundai Group.
4. Jaeyong Lee – Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman ($6.1 billion)
He served as president of Samsung Electronics in 2009 and was appointed vice president in 2013. As the eldest of Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s one son and three daughters, there is no doubt that he will become the next president of Samsung Electronics.
3. Kim Jung-ju – Nexon Chairman ($7.1 billion)
Chairman Kim Jung-ju is the founder of Nexon, a Korean online game company, and Chairman of NXC. He donated 100 billion won to startups and neonatal hospitals in 2018 and promised that his children would not inherit a stake in the company.
2. Seo Jeong-jin – Celltrion Chairman ($7.4 billion)
Chairman Seo Jeong-jin is the Chairman of Celltrion, a biopharmaceutical company that develops treatments for cancer, influenza and arthritis. The company was co-founded in 2002, and after Celltrion shares expanded its market share in 2018, its fortunes soared.
1. Lee Kun-hee – Samsung Electronics Chairman ($16.8 billion)
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee is the third son of the late Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-cheol. The Samsung Group is engaged in various fields such as fashion, theme parks, insurance, IT services, smartphones, and TVs. In 2014, he suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized on the top floor of the Seoul Samsung Hospital Medical Center.
