Poongsan chairman to head FKI

By Kim Jae-heun

Poongsan Chairman Ryu Jin has been tapped as the new head of The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), one of the nation's major business lobbies said, Monday.

“Ryu has outstanding experience, knowledge and connections on the global stage. He is the right person to demonstrate his leadership in building the new FKI as a global think tank and a central economic organization in name and reality,” the FKI said.

Poongsan chairman's appointment will be made official after putting it up for a vote at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled on Aug. 22.

Ryu has been considered for the KFI chairmanship, given that he served as vice chairman of the lobby group in 2001. He is also a co-head of the Korea-U.S. Business Council, currently, a forum between the business leaders of the two countries.

Ryu's company Poongsan is a medium-sized enterprise that manufactures and sells processed products made of copper and copper alloy materials. It also operates a defense business that produces various ammunition.

The munitions company has been working on relations with the U.S. early on, and is well-known for its deep ties to the U.S. political and business circles ― especially with former presidents George Walker Bush and George Herbert Walker Bush.

Born in 1958, Ryu graduated from the Department of English Literature at Seoul National University and completed master's degree in business administration at Dartmouth University in the United States.