Korean Re CEO Park Jong-won will leave for Mount Everest in May to demonstrate the company’s drive for challenge and innovation, the reinsurance company said Tuesday.

Park, famous for having been elected as the top executive for the company for five straight terms, will lead a team of 10 employees to aim for a 5,500-meter spot on the 8,848-meter Mount Everest in a trip that will last 11 days.

“CEO Park has completed the Baekdudaegan course in the past years together with employees,” Korea Re said. “The new project for Mount Everest is to commemorate the successful climbing of the tough mountain ranges and also to stress the corporate spirit of challenge and innovation.”

The Baekdudaegan is a mountain range which runs most of the length of the Korean Peninsula, from Mount Baekdu in the north to Mount Jiri in the south.

The expedition team will head for Nepal in early May and start from 3,000 meters above sea level to reach 5,500 meters.

Park has built up his climbing skills through past expeditions that involved a grueling schedule on local ranges. Since 2004, Park has led a team of Korean Re workers to climb Mount Jiri and other major mountains.

Park took office at Korea Re in July 1998 and helped revive the company which was on the verge of bankruptcy with drastic restructuring. He was reelected as CEO in April 2010, which marked his fifth consecutive term. 



By Yang Sung-jin
(insight@heraldcorp.com)