SK Group pays tribute to founding visionaries

[Courtesy of SK Group]

SK Group unveiled the restored birthplace of its founder in Pyeong-dong, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province as part of the celebrations for the 71st anniversary of its founding.

On Monday, the group opened the heritage house where late founder Chey Jong-gun and his brother and successor Chey Jong-hyun were born and raised. Located just five minutes away from Sunkyong Textile, the group‘s inception point, the house includes a memorial hall in the traditional Korean hanok style, and an exhibition hall aimed at recounting the history of national economic growth and the entrepreneurial spirit.

A testament to their legacy, the hanok memorial hall captures the late Chey Jong-gun and late Chairman Chey Jong-hyun in the 1950s and 1960s as they started and developed their business via exports and diversification.

“Founding a company brings happiness to many people, much like a large tree that provides ample shade. The goal of a company is not simply pursuing individual profit, but creating benefits for many people,” Chey Jong-gun said when he was founding Sunkyong Textile after the Korean War in 1953.

[Courtesy of SK Group]

Chey Jong-hyun shared similar values, prioritizing people and believing that a company’s strength lies in its employees. “The most important aspect of corporate management is human-centric management, and it is essential to strictly adhere to the basic principle of humane management,” he said. He referred to himself as having dedicated a significant portion of his life to gathering, nurturing, and fostering talent.

On the day of the unveiling, incumbent SK Chairman Chey Tae-won visited the heritage house and planted an elm tree in the courtyard. “The lives and management philosophies of Chey Jong-gun and Chey Jong-hyun contributed not only to the development of the company, but also contributed to the nation‘s development, as they both devoted all their efforts to nurturing talent,” he said in tribute to their legacies.

The SK Group heritage house will be open to the public for tours, with reservations available via Naver Booking from April 15th, 2024, onwards.