With the prestigious Ivy League known to offer top-notch education, elites with a business family background are flocking to the U.S. universities to gain an edge for when they inherit the family business.

One Ivy League institution located by the natural waterfalls in New York is especially known for its hotel management curriculum: Cornell. Graduates of Cornell University with a major in hotel management dominate the hotel industry.

Of Cornell hotel management graduates, third-generation chaebol -- family owners of Korean conglomerates -- are actively partaking in their family hotel businesses. As is tradition of passing the hotel business down to daughters of the family, a new tradition of gaining acceptance to Cornell University as the first step to receiving the hotel business is emerging.

One third-generation chaebol daughter to follow the old and new tradition is Korean Air former vice president Cho Hyun-ah, the eldest daughter of Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho.

After graduating from Seoul Arts High School, Cho Hyun-ah studied hotel management at Cornell University and later worked at Korean Air, an airline subsidiary of Hanjin, from 1999. Working her way up, she become the director of the Korean Air Lines Hotel Network, a hotel subsidiary of Hanjin Group, in 2007, and was promoted to vice president of in-flight services of Korean Air as well as the KAL Hotel Network in 2014.

However, due to the infamous nut rage incident that angered the public in December that year, she resigned from all executive roles.

Cho currently owns 2.49 percent of shares of Korean Air and KAL Hotel Network holding company Hanjin Kal, 0.03 percent of Hanjin Co. and 27.7 percent of Uniconverse, a call center subsidiary of Hanjin Group that is 100 percent owned by Cho and her two younger siblings.

According to financial information company FN Guide, Cho Hyun-ah’s stocks of listed Hanjin Kal and Hanjin are worth a combined 23.9 billion won ($20.7 million).

The eldest daughter of Mirae Asset Group owner and chairman Park Hyeon-joo, who holds several hotels and resorts at home and abroad including Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, is also a graduate of Cornell.

Although not a hotel management major graduate, Park Ha-min studied history at Cornell before working at McKinsey & Company and CBRE Group for a year each before joining Mirae Asset Global Investments in 2013. She learned about hotel investments while working in the international real estate investment department of the Mirae firm. She is now continuing her studies in the U.S.

Mirae Asset Global Investments under Mirae Asset Group has a 60 percent stake in the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul. The elder Park built the hotel through a Mirae Asset Global Investments real estate fund worth 530 billion won from 2012 and entrusted the hotel operation to luxury hotel brand Four Seasons.

With Park investing in the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, Australia, in 2013, cooperation between Mirae Asset and Four Seasons began.

Holding an 8.1 percent stake of unlisted Mirae Asset Consulting, Park Ha-min holds 53 billion won in stock wealth. Mirae Asset Consulting holds 14.1 percent of shares of Mirae Asset Capital, the de facto holding company for Mirae Asset Group.

There are also instances of the hotel business being passed down to chaebol sons.

Aju Group’s third-generation Moon Yoon-whe is a Cornell hotel management alumni as well.

Moon, who is the son of Aju Group chairman Moon Gyu-young, is currently the CEO of Aju Hotels & Resorts, the holding company for Aju Group’s hotel business.

Moon currently holds unlisted stocks from Aju Global and Aju Frontier, the Aju Group subsidiaries that specialize in real estate and natural resources development, respectively. 

By Superrich Team

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Hong Seung-wan

Cheon Ye-seon

Lee Sun-young

Yoon Hyun-jong

Min Sang-seek

Lee Seo-young