SK chairman stresses decarbonizing efforts during surprise visit to CES
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, second from left, reads the introduction to renewable energy at his company's exhibition booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Friday (local time). Yonhap
By Park Jae-hyuk
LAS VEGAS ― SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won expressed satisfaction with his company's exhibition pavilion at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Friday (local time), saying its booth displayed the group's efforts to reduce carbon emissions exceptionally well.
“I hope more people pay attention to climate change, so that we can cope with the issue better,” said Chey, who is the only participant at this year's CES among the leaders of Korea's four largest business groups.
The chairman made the remarks during his surprise visit to the world's most influential tech show, the first time for him to visit the event since his appointment to the top post.
“The size of the event is quite enormous as I'd heard about before,” he told reporters at the group's exhibition booth. “I was able to look at various new technologies that I've heard so much about.”
Chey had been expected to visit the booth on the show's opening day, along with the group's top executives; however, he cancelled the visit at the last moment after one of his secretaries tested positive for COVID-19.
SK said Thursday that the chairman would participate in his remaining meetings in the U.S. online.
However, Chey unexpectedly came to the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall at around 3:20 p.m., Friday, and looked around SK Group's exhibition booth for about 10 minutes. The company said he had tested negative for COVID-19 twice ― Thursday and Friday.
After looking around the booth, Chey moved outside to visit a company food truck serving cream cheese and ice cream made with milk substitutes. He tasted the desserts made with animal-free protein developed by Perfect Day and Nature's Fynd, U.S. companies that attracted investments from SK.