SK Group commemorates chairman's 25th year since inauguration

SK Group, South Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate, will commemorate the 25th anniversary of Chey Tae-won’s inauguration as chairman on Sept. 1. Chey will not have an official event for the celebration, sources said.

Chey is striving to promote Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in southeastern port city of Busan. He has spent half of this year overseas to meet global business and political leaders to win votes for the Korean city.

He has visited the Americas since mid-August, after a tour of Europe in July. The chairman spent the entire month of June in Europe and the US for the promotion activities, industry insiders said.

He will accelerate such activities as the host city will be chosen by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) member states through an election in November. The three candidates are Busan, Rome and Riyadh.

Chey became chairman of the group in 1998 at the age of 38, after the death of his father and SK Group's former Chairman Chey Jong-hyun.

Under the current chairman’s leadership, SK Group’s total assets have increased more than nine times to 327.3 trillion won ($247.4 billion) last year, compared with the year of his inauguration.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.