Shin Kyuk-ho

Korean businessman

Shin Kyuk-ho (4 October 1921 – 19 January 2020), known in Japan as Takeo Shigemitsu,[1] was a South Korean businessman known for being the founder of the Korean conglomerate Lotte Corporation.[2]

Shin Kyuk-ho
Shin in 1964
Born(1921-10-04)4 October 1921
Died19 January 2020(2020-01-19) (aged 98)
EducationWaseda University
OccupationBusinessman
Known forFounder of Lotte Corporation
Spouse(s)Noh Soon-hwa (m. 1942-1949)
Hatsuko Shigemitsu (m. 1952)
Seo Mi-kyung
Children4

Career change

Shin was born in Ulsan, Japanese Korea in 1922. In 1941, he stowed away on a ship to Japan, where he studied chemical engineering at Waseda University. He opened a rice cooker manufacturing plant in 1942.[1] After the plant was destroyed during an air raid, he founded Lotte in 1948, which grew from selling chewing gum to becoming a major multinational corporation.[3]

In 2006, Shin and his family were ranked 136th on Forbes magazine's list, "The World's Billionaires."[4] In 2009, Shin was ranked 38th on the magazine's list of South Korea's richest people.[5] Lotte itself was South Korea's fifth largest conglomerate as of 2017.[6]

In June 2017, he retired from his role as board director of Lotte Holdings Co. after holding the position for nearly 70 years.[7]

In December 2017, he was sentenced to four years in prison after he was convicted of embezzling 128.6 billion won (119 million USD) from Lotte. However, Shin was allowed to remain free given his poor health.[8]

Personal life change

Shin had a total of four children from three marriages. His first wife, Noh Soon-hwa, died in 1951. They have one daughter, Shin Young-ja (born 1942).[9] Shin then married a Japanese woman, Hatsuko Shigemitsu, in 1952.[10] They have two sons, Shin Dong-joo (born 1954)[11] and Shin Dong-bin (born 1955).[12] Shin is also married to Seo Mi-Kyung in South Korea under the country's common-law marriage system.[13] They have one daughter, Shin Yu-mi (born 1983).[14]

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk Ho's life from rags to riches to prison term". The Straits Times. 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  2. "신격호" [Shin Kyuk-ho]. Daum 100 (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  3. Schreiber, Mark (2018-03-03). "Anniversaries loom for gum producer Lotte and the Yoshiwara red-light district". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  4. "#136 Shin Kyuk-Ho & family". Forbes. 2006. Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  5. "#38 Shin Kyuk-Ho". Forbes. 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  6. "Lotte Hotel to open chain in Myanmar next month". Yonhap News Agency. 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  7. Kim, Hooyeon (2017-06-24). "Lotte Group Founder Shin Kyuk-ho Retires as Board Director at 94". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  8. "Jail for 95-year-old South Korean tycoon". BBC News. 2017-12-22. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  9. Min, Byeong-ki; Park, Jun-u (2016-07-07). "신영자 이사장 영장심사때 대성통곡… '애끓는 모정'". Munhwa Ilbo. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  10. Yu, Sin-jae (2015-08-01). "롯데, 시게미쓰 家門의 전쟁". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  11. "신동주" [Shin Dong-joo]. Daum 100 (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  12. "신동빈" [Shin Dong-bin]. Daum 100 (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  13. "Lotte suspected of giving favors to founder's third wife". Yonhap News Agency. 2016-06-17. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  14. Park, Ji-hyeon (2015-08-29). "롯데가 경영권 분쟁 속 '방배동 별당' 서미경·신유미 모녀는?". Women's Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-08-15.

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