Chung Ju-yung (1915.11.25~2001.03.21) is the founder of Hyundai, which included the global consumer brand Hyundai Motor Company, one of the world’s foremost shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries, and a large number of other affiliates. Born on November 25, 1915 in Tongcheon County, Gangwon Province, in what is now North Korea, Chung ran several small businesses prior to Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945. In 1946, he founded the Hyundai Motor Service Center, and the next year Hyundai Construction Company. These two businesses would blossom into the bedrock of one of Korea’s industrial titans.
Chung presided over the Hyundai group during South Korea’s rise from being one of the world’s poorest nations to now one of its richest. Aside from his many achievements in the world of business, he also helped secure the 1988 Olympics for Seoul and sought to improve relations with North Korea through public diplomacy.
