KoreaToday Kyobo Life Insurance Soars on New Kind of CEO

By Yoon Ja-young

Staff Reporter

A CEO who sings songs and plays the guitar to cheer up employees, bakes cookies for them and washes their feet is difficult to imagine in a country where there exists a strict hierarchy in the workplace.

Kyobo Life Insurance, one of the country's top insurers, has such a CEO, and has been successful with him. Business administration professors say CEOs like him, who cherishes communication, emotion, and innovation, are likely to win in the future arena of global management.

Medical Professor Turns Into CEO

Kyobo Life Insurance CEO Shin Chang-jae has had a very interesting career track. The eldest son of the founder of the insurer that boasts a 50-year history was drawn to medicine. After majoring in it at Seoul National University, he worked there as an obstetrics & gynecology professor until 1996.