Choi Shin-won, the second son of the late SK Group founder Choi Jong-kun, returned to the conglomerate’s corporate board a year after he stepped down as CEO of its petrochemical affiliate SKC in March 2015, while retaining the title of chairman.

This time around, the 64-year-old scion -- a cousin of SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won -- has made his comeback to SK Networks. Last Friday, the annual shareholders meeting of SK’s integrated marketing company approved his appointment to the board and title of chief executive.

Overshadowed by the group chairman’s return to the board of SK Holdings on the same day, the move by the eldest surviving founding family member of the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, drew relatively little attention.

His life story and career path, however, are compelling enough to attract the attention of Korean business circles. 

Choi has always had a deep emotional attachment to SK Networks, the origin of SK Group. His father founded Sunkyoung Textiles in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, back in 1953, which grew and transformed into SK Networks, the trading and marketing affiliate of SK Group, whose revenue reached 20.3 trillion won ($17.5 billion) last year.

The founder’s second son has become the biggest individual investor of SK Networks with a 0.47 percent stake as of March 22, but the company is governed by SK Holdings, which has a stake of around 40 percent.

The future of SK Networks, which has survived more hardships than its sister firms, including an attack by the Monaco-based Sovereign investment fund in 2003, however, is not so bright, as its growth has been stagnant for several years.

“Considering the timing, the new CEO of SK Networks might focus on bringing changes in the corporate culture and seek new growth opportunities by bolstering closer ties with other SK affiliates, driven by the strong responsibility to keep his father’s legacy alive,” an industry insider said.

Seeking harmony in family affairs

The former SKC CEO is known for his harmonious leadership. He has been trained to amicably settle issues, and has sought harmony rather than conflict at critical junctures in family affairs.

Unlike other family-controlled Korean conglomerates, which pass power on to sons, SK founder and the first group chairman transferred power to his younger brother Chey Jong-hyun, the CEO of Sunkyoung Textiles, when he died of lung cancer at the age of 48 in 1973, because he thought his three sons -- in their 20s and teens -- were too young to lead a company.

Before the second group chairman was nearing his death in 1998 -- suffering from the same disease as his elder brother -- there was a family debate on who should be the successor.

Representing the siblings of the founder, the group founder’s eldest son, then in his 40s, gave way to his uncle’s eldest son Chey Tae-won, the current SK chairman, saying the most trained and skilled manger had to lead the group.

When the founder’s first son died in 2000, the second son Shin-won continued to remain low-key, taking a mediator’s role from his elder brother among the founding family members.

In 2003, he raised the issue of separating from the group, but backed down soon to avoid an ugly family feud for the control over the group.

Experts on the governance of SK Group, however, forecast that the separation issue could appear again in the future when Shin-won and his younger brother Chang-won have strengthened their influence and control in SK affiliates that their father founded -- including SKC, SK Networks and SK Chemicals.

Giving for coprosperity

Outside of the corporate boardroom, the new SK Networks CEO has built his reputation as a passionate “giver,” something uncommon in the families of Korean billionaires.

In 2009, he was listed in Forbes Asia’s “48 heroes of philanthropy” in 12 Asia and Oceania nations. Back then, the magazine shed light on Choi’s donation of $350,000 to help restore the coast of Taean County in South Chungcheong Province, where the nation’s largest-ever oil spill occurred in 2007, and to support scholarship foundations.

Choi was also the first member of the “Honor Society,” a club of big donors whose annual donation to the Community Chest of Korea exceeds 100 million won.

In a recent interview with Korean national daily JoongAng Ilbo, Choi stressed that he believed that giving more in charity can lead to the nation’s prosperity, adding his dream is to dedicate himself to the evolution of his family into Korea’s Wallenbergs, referring to the well-respected family business group in Sweden.

By Seo Jee-yeon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)