By Kang Seung-woo
Staff reporter
Park Jong-won, CEO of Korean Re, the longest-serving CEO in South Korean financial corporate history, is now set to go abroad to transform the company into an international player.
The reinsurance company announced Friday that the 65- year-old has been elected to the post for a record fifth straight time at a general stockholders’ meeting.
Park, who was named the boss of the company in 1998, will be in charge for three more years. Park’s reappointment was mainly due to his outstanding achievements since he took the helm of the firm.
The former government finance officer was parachuted in for the moribund Korean Re had been suffering an operating loss reaching 400 billion won ($321.2 million) at that time.
However, he restructured the company, reduced 30 percent of all employees, and secured liquidity by selling bonds, which helped Korean Re withstand the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and 1998.
Since then, his full-strength efforts in expanding its operations and the drastic internal innovation have put the company on a steady track to rapid growth.
Its sales saw a sharp increase from 1.2 trillion won to 4.2 trillion won and its net profit, which averaged 2.3 billion won between 1963 and 1998, more recently climbed to 79 billion won.
In addition, its status has heightened on the international stage of reinsurance. Korean Re, established in 1963, stood at 28th in 1997, but soared to 13th last month, which is the best record in Asia.
It is expected to rank 10th in terms of the amount of premium collected from insurance firms totaling 4.7 trillion won this year. He plans to develop a new growth engine by making forays into overseas markets.
“Korean Re has relied too much on the local market,” Park said at a recent meeting with reporters. “Now, we will try to discover a new market abroad.” Park has a goal to increase the portion of its revenue abroad to 35 percent by 2015 and 50 percent by 2020 from the current 19 percent. “I think Korean Re is unable to grow beyond its limit if it focuses only on the reinsurance business. Therefore, we will try best to develop a new market through mergers and acquisitions (M&A),” he said.