Group chairmen`s daughters left out in management roles

○ Strong mothers, strong daughters

Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin is the first female president of a Samsung Group affiliate.

She and Lee Seo-hyun, vice president of Cheil Industries and Cheil Worldwide; Chung Yoo-kyung, vice president of Shinsegae Corp.; Chung Ji-yi, senior vice president of Hyundai Ubiquitous & Information Technology; Cho Hyun-ah, senior vice president of Korean Air; and Cho Hyun-min, vice president of Korean Air, are the next generation of women corporate leaders in Korea.

Family culture has hugely affected these women in moving up the management ladder. This was especially true when their mothers or their mothers’ families wielded influence over their respective conglomerates.

For example, Shinsegae Vice President Chung is the daughter of Shinsegae Chairwoman Lee Myung-hee and Korean Air Senior Vice President Chung is the daughter of Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun.

Tong Yang Leisure Vice Chairwoman Lee Hye-gyeong, who is the mother of Tong Yang Magic Director Hyun Jeong-dam and Tong Yang Online General Manager Hyun Gyeong-dam, took over her father’s business to manage Tong Yang Group with her husband and Chairman Hyun Jae-hyun.

Lee Hye-gyeong’s younger sister Hwa-gyeong, who is president of Orion Group, is also an influential businesswoman.

Among 13 next-generation women leaders, seven (53.8 percent) have studied abroad. Cheil Industries Vice President Lee, Korean Air Senior Vice President Cho, Korean Air Vice President Cho and Shinsegae Vice President Chung graduated from foreign universities. Kang Jeong-yeon, the eldest daughter of STX Group Chairman Kang Duk-soo, is studying in the U.S.

○ Distinctive features

The tycoons’ daughters work in fashion, service and marketing after setting a clear career goal from childhood. Shinsegae’s Chung, who oversees the conglomerate’s advertising and marketing, graduated from Yewon School, Seoul Arts High School and Rhode Island School of Design.

Cheil’s Lee went to Seoul Arts High School and Parsons School of Design in New York.

Korean Air’s Cho Hyun-ah, who is famous for her taste in food, graduated from Yewon and Seoul Arts High School and majored in hotel management at Cornell University. She is in charge of in-flight service and hotel business for the airline.

Her younger sister Hyun-min majored in communications at the University of Southern California and also studied advertising planning and marketing. She works at the communications integration team at Korea’s leading air carrier.

Tong Yang Magic Director Hyun Jeong-dam received her MBA from Stanford University and supervises brand and design management at the company’s marketing division. The parent group expects her to nurture Tong Yang Magic from a home appliance maker to a lifestyle innovator.

○ Limitations

Though they are on the fast track at their companies, these daughters of tycoons are not getting the kind of education their brothers are as group heirs.

The education the daughters received is starkly different from that of the sons who return after getting MBAs overseas and work in planning, strategy and finance for their fathers’ companies. The daughters are accumulating more working-level skills.

The daughters of Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo follow the role played by their late mother Lee Chung-hwa, who devoted herself to caring for her husband. Innocean adviser Chung Sung-yi, Hyundai Commercial adviser Chung Myung-yi and Haevichi Hotel and Resort Managing Director Chung Yoon-yi have official titles but do not actively participate in management.

Though she began working around age 40 at Innocean, Chung Sung-yi gets reports on corporate management but does not go to the office on a daily basis, an Innocean source said.

○ Daughters of LG, GS and LS Group chairmen absent in management

The daughters of the chairmen of the LG, GS and LS groups do not receive management education due to the strict Confucian code in the conglomerates’ ruling families. LG Group honorary chairman Koo Cha-kyung has four sons, two daughters and 12 granddaughters, but none of his daughters and granddaughters work for the group.

“They are housewives or students,” a group source said.

Koo Yeon-kyung, the eldest daughter of LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo, majored in social welfare at Yonsei University before getting married. Her younger sister is in high school.

None of the daughters of the GS and LS group chairmen are getting management education, either. The sons of LG founder Koo In-hwoi -- LS honorary chairman Koo Tae-hwoi, E1 honorary chairman Koo Pyung-hwoi, and Yesco honorary chairman Koo Doo-hwoi, have 12 daughters but none of them work for their fathers’ respective companies.

Five of the daughters are housewives and seven are students or preschoolers.

At GS Group, Huh Yoon-young, daughter of Chairman Huh Chang-soo, and Huh Ji-young, daughter of GS Caltex Chairman Huh Dong-soo, are also absent from company activities.

nuk@donga.com tesomiom@donga.com