Chey Tae-won spearheads innovation at SK Group
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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won delivers a speech during an event in celebration of the completion of SK hynix’s M14 factory in Icheon, Aug. 25.
Chairman spares no efforts to help revitalize Korea Inc.
By Kim Tae-gyu
Anyone who spends 31 months behind bars would want to rest for a while after getting out of jail. But not SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won ― he set to work as soon as he was free.
On Aug. 14, a day ahead of Liberation Day, he received a special presidential pardon after as many as 926 days inside.
Instead of spending the national holiday at home, the 55-year-old went to the SK Group office located in downtown Seoul to handle major issues in the country's third-largest conglomerate.
"We all know that Chey is not a health nut, but we expected that he would take care of his health for at least a few days. But he did not do so," said an SK insider who asked not to be named.
"He works really hard to take meticulous care of all the important issues facing the group. He seems to feel great pressure about his role as one of the business leaders helping to revitalize Korea’s economy."
Indeed, Cheong Wa Dae underscored an urgently needed boost to the country's moribund economy as the main reason for granting a special pardon to Chey who was imprisoned in 2013 for misappropriating company funds.
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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, poses after a meeting with National Iranian Oil Company CEO Roknoddin Javadi in Tehran, Sept. 3.
Excruciatingly tight schedule
On Aug. 16, senior leaders of the group reported to Chey and on the next day he convened chief executives of the conglomerate's 17 crucial subsidiaries including SK Telecom, the country's primary mobile carrier, top oil refiner SK Innovation and the world's second-largest chipmaker SK hynix.
At the CEO meeting, a decision was made that SK would channel 46 trillion won to SK hynix semiconductor factories ― around two-thirds of which will be spent on two new plants while the remaining will be invested in the facilities of a plant under construction.
"As far as I know, Chey demanded a more proactive stance, saying that corporations are required to frontload investments and expand them when the economy is in poor shape," the insider said.
On Aug. 18, he visited the SK Group-invested Creative Economy Innovation Center situated in Daejeon, around 145 kilometers south of Seoul, to stress the significance of science and technology in nurturing corporate and national competitiveness.
The next day, Chey headed for SK hynix, which became a SK Group unit in 2012 with SK Telecom funds upwards of 4 trillion won. Back then, most were against the idea but Chey forged ahead with the mega-deal.
Afterwards, SK hynix became the goose that lays the golden egg by setting new sales and profit records every year. Last year, the company chalked up an 18.8 trillion won revenue from an operating profit of 5.3 trillion won.
On Aug. 20, Chey went to SK Innovation's complex in Ulsan. He also dropped by creative economy innovation centers in the city and in Daegu to wrap up his hectic first week after discharge from prison.
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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, shakes hands with an SK Innovation official at the oil refiner’s Ulsan complex, Aug. 20.
Meeting with President Park
On Aug. 25, Chey took part in a ceremony marking the completion of SK hynix’s M14 factory, of which construction took one full year and 2.38 trillion won, in Icheon, a city southeast of Seoul.
The 53,000-square-meter facility is the largest single DRAM production plant in the world and is expected to further enhance the company's bottom line once it starts production during the current quarter.
SK hynix is locked in global competition with business bellwether Samsung Electronics as well as distant second-tier rivals Micron Technology and Toshiba.
"I sincerely appreciate the central and regional governments, communities and suppliers for the successful completion of the M14 line. Today, we make momentum in rewriting the country's semiconductor history," Chey said.
"And today we also declare the great challenge facing us in the future. Investing in human resources is the essence of management. Thus, we will help Korea sharpen its competitiveness by recruiting young workers and nurturing cutting-edge technology."
President Park herself made it to the ceremony and smiled at Chey's remarks, as they align with her priority of dealing with youth unemployment, which shows no signs of improvement.
"We need a strong will and utmost efforts to overcome the current crisis in the manufacturing industries," she said. “Toward that end, big companies have to spend money in a brisker fashion.”
Going global
On Aug. 27, Chey flew to China to inspect the SK hynix fabrication plant in Wuxi that churns out about half of the company's DRAMs. Over the next two days, the tycoon met senior Chinese bureaucrats and business leaders.
On Aug. 31, he visited Hong Kong for a series of meetings including one with China Gas Holdings President Liu Ming Hui. SK Group is the third-biggest shareholder of the leading piped natural gas distributor and operator in the world's most populous nation.
The next day, he was in Taiwan to meet businesspeople like Terry Gou, the founding chairman of Foxconn, the world's foremost contract electronics manufacturer by any measure.
SK employees say that Chey's vigorous activities both at home and abroad are breathing energy into the group.
"In the past, there was pessimism and depression among staff members. Now, the atmosphere is different. I think that Chey brings dynamism to the group," a group official said. "It is hard to explain. But it is reminiscent of a commander-in-chief returning to the front lines in a hard-fought war. I feel a sense of security and relief. My peers appear to have similar sentiments." .