The 10th memorial ceremony for Shin Yong-ho, the late founder of Kyobo Life Insurance Co., will be held in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Wednesday, the insurance firm said Tuesday.
A variety of commemorative events, including a photo exhibition and concert, will be staged in Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the company said.
Besides influential figures from the insurance industry and academia, a large number of young people are expected to join the commemoration, the organizer said.
Shin Yong-ho (right), founder of Kyobo Life Insurance and Kyobo Book Center, and Swiss architect Mario Botta are shown reviewing the blueprint of Gangnam Kyobo Tower in this June 1994 photo. (Kyobo Life Insurance)
“The late chairman Shin is respected in the insurance industry as the father of Korea’s modern life insurance,” the company said in a statement. “This great man greatly contributed in making the country win the world’s No. 8 in the insurance sector,” it added.
Born on Aug. 11, 1917, Shin devoted his entire life to life insurance, under the pseudonym “Daesan,” meaning “great mountain.” The elementary school drop out considered every minute to be time for learning, Kyobo Life Insurance said.
The life insurance guru was the first Korean to receive the top award in the industry in 1983 and the Insurance Hall of Fame Award in 1996, both given by the International Insurance Society.
Kyobo Life Insurance currently holds some 70 trillion won ($63 billion) in capital. Since 2004, the 55-year-old insurance firm has maintained the local industry’s highest return on equity, which measures the company’s efficiency in profit-making. The company reaped about 572 billion won in net earnings last year.
By Chung Joo-won (
joowonc@heraldcorp.com)
