Kyobo chairman wins top French medal
By Nam Hyun-woo
Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae
Kyobo Life Insurance said Wednesday its Chairman Shin Chang-jae will receive the Legion d’Honneur, the highest French order of merit, from the French government.
According to the insurer, French Ambassador to Korea Fabien Penone will award Shin with the Legion d’Honneur Chevalier during a ceremony at the embassy in Seoul for Shin’s contribution to cultural exchange between Korea and France.
The order was established in 1802 by Napoleon to honor figures with military or civil merits. So far, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, conductor Chung Myung-whun, POSCO Honorary Chairman Park Tae-joon and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee are among the Koreans who have received the award.
The insurer said the French government highly recognized Shin’s contribution to the two countries’ cultural exchange through the Daesan Foundation.
The Daesan Foundation, established in 1992, is a non-profit cultural foundation to support writers and the translations of their works. So far, 510 literature pieces have been translated or published through the foundation and 310 were published outside Korea.
One of those works was “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang, which was translated by Deborah Smith and won the Man Booker International Prize last year.
Shin has been the chairman of the foundation since 1993. Daesan is the pseudonym of Shin's father and the founder of Kyobo Life, Shin Yong-ho.
Last year, Shin held a humanities lecture featuring 2008 Nobel Literature Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio and renowned architect Dominique Perrault to commemorate the 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and France.
The insurer said Kyobo Bookstore was also acknowledged for its contribution to the advancement of reading infrastructure in Korea.
Kyobo Bookstore is one of the largest bookstore chains in Korea with 50 million Koreans visiting its stores across the country annualy. It also holds poetry readings, meetings with authors and other events that allow people to expand their interaction with literature.
The insurer said that Shin has been expressing his affection for poetry and has been using its power during his business activities.
“Shin usually quotes pieces of poems in his speeches to employees, in the belief that the poetic metaphor is more effective in delivering a message than lengthy words,” a Kyobo Life official said.