By Oh Young-jin
Business editor

The first impression you get when you are introduced to Woori Bank CEO Lee Chong-hwi is that he looks like a person you can trust your money with.

Spending 10 minutes or so with him makes you feel as if you have known him for a long time, like an uncle in your neighborhood who you can share secrets with and expect advice from.

If your conversation lasts, say, for an hour, it is likely that the trust you feel becomes a significant part of his humility.

On your way out after shaking hands with him, you will likely realize why he is running one of Korea’s biggest banks ― his ability to make a tough call, while maintaining his sense of humility.

For any doubters, here is an account from an interview The Korea Times conducted with Lee at his office in downtown Seoul on July 5.

His office reception room where the interview was held felt a bit warmer. Obviously, the instructions recently given as part of the government-led energy conservation drive were affecting not just Woori’s branches but also its CEO sanctum.

Then, the 61-year-old showed up, explaining he was held up by a call, adding he was sorry for the delay. He wore a well-fitted suit but it didn’t look expensive.

In response to a request to smile and gesticulate from a Times photographer, he blushed a bit before engrossing himself in a question-and-answer session.

The first question was what made him join the banking industry in 1970 and remain in the field ever since.

He talked about the urgent need to make money as the eldest among his siblings and about a job at a bank being one of the few available at that time when Korea was about to start its industrialization.

“My friends got multiple offers and I didn’t obviously because I had yet to fulfill my military service,” he said. Later when he worked at Hanil Bank, he was offered a better-paying position at a corporation but decided not to take it. Hanil later merged with the Commercial Bank in 1999 at the height of the currency crisis, becoming Hanvit. Hanvit was later renamed Woori.

“I thought that it would be better to stay at one place, if I remained as a salaried person,” Lee said. “It was not like entering politics or starting my own business.”

Asked what has kept him at the same bank (although its name has been changed), he found joy in what he did. “Wherever I go, I do my best and this earns me the trust of my seniors and colleagues. That is a good enough incentive for me.”

He neither takes pride in being charismatic nor believes in confrontation.

He doesn’t remember yelling at a subordinate, although it may be effective sometimes.

“If a junior doesn’t work properly, I call him into my office and try to reason with him,” he said. “I want the system to work, not to rely on a charismatic leader doing everything. It may be a habit I have learned from working in the banking sector for a long time.”

Lee says he is a strong believer in the power of communication and moderation. “I have been in this business for a long time. I know it inside and out.

“Thus, I make it a priority to know what my employees feel. In turn, they give me the same acknowledgment. This is a two-way trust-based relationship that has helped me not make many big mistakes during my career,” he said. “Not conceding a goal is as important as scoring in order to win.”

For the past two years as CEO, he thinks that his belt-tightening strategy employed in the face of the global financial crisis was the “right one” but left the chance for a change in strategy when the bank enters a new period of growth and expansion.

He knows from his own experience that in life leaders can change many times and the leader in the beginning is not always the winner in the end.

“I have had my share of failures, for instance, being passed up for a promotion,” he said. “Many of my forerunners didn’t even finish the race, falling by the wayside in the process.”

Lee said his best moment was when he was promoted to manage a bank branch in Donam-dong, Seoul in 1991. “Then, I decided to withdraw existing loans and put a hold on new loans to a construction firm,” he recalled. “It was a tough call because it was our biggest customer. Then, the firm changed its main creditor bank and several months later it went bankrupt.”

His worst moment was not last year when he was entangled in cleaning up big losses from derivatives investments made under his predecessor but when he was handling post-merger affairs in 1999. “I had severe migraines. It was pressure that I felt, knowing that my work could affect a lot of people.”

After 40 years in the banking industry, it is obvious that he has experienced ups and downs but the overall picture of his career illustrates the strength of the tortoise in its fabled race against the hare ― being steady and persistent in the pursuit of his goal. This is a lesson that Wall Street can take in its efforts to restore public confidence after its house of cards built on greed collapsed.