Seo Jung-jin (businessman)

In this Korean name, the family name is Seo.
Seo Jung-jin
서정진
Born (1957-10-23) October 23, 1957 (age 67)
Cheongjin, South Korea
Alma materKonkuk University (BS, MBA)
OccupationChairman of Celltrion
Korean name
Hangul
서정진
Hanja
徐廷珍[1]
Revised RomanizationSeo Jeongjin
McCune–ReischauerSŏ Chŏngjin

Seo Jung-jin (Korean: 서정진; born October 23, 1957[2]) is a South Korean businessman. He is among the richest people in South Korea, with Forbes giving his December 2024 net worth as US$7.2 billion and ranking him the third richest in the country.[3] He is chairman and cofounder of the pharmaceutical company Celltrion.[4]

Biography

He was born in Cheongju, South Korea on October 23, 1957. He graduated from Jemulpo High School [ko]. He received Bachelor of Industrial Engineering and Master of Business Administration degrees from Konkuk University.[2]

He began his career at Samsung Electronics. He then worked as a consultant for Daewoo Motors.[2]

In 1999, he founded Nexol (넥솔), a predecessor company to Celltrion, with ten of his colleagues from Daewoo Motors. He retired from the company in March 2021,[5] but returned as chairman in March 2023.[2]

By 2023, he owned 97.2% of Celltrion Holdings, which in turn owned 23% of Celltrion, 55% of Celltrion Pharm, and 24.3% of Celltrion Healthcare.[6]

Personal life

Seo has two sons. His first son, Seo Jin-seok (서진석), is chairman of the board at Celltrion and Celltrion Pharm. His second son, Seo Jun-suk (서준석), is Celltrion Healthcare's chairman of the board.[6] Their 2024 appointments to leadership positions in the company reportedly appeared to contradict a previous statement that he had made in 2019, where he claimed his intent was to have non-family members lead the company.[7]

Seo was in a common-law relationship with a woman from 2001 to 2012.[6] By 2023, she was reportedly CEO of Seorin Holdings and Seowon D&D, affiliates of Celltrion.[8][6] He had two daughters with this woman, although their relationship became strained and they fell out of contact. He paid child support to this woman; he alleged that she demanded more money from him, and that he filed a police report against her. In 2021, his family register was updated to include these two daughters.[6]

References

  1. ^ 서정진(徐廷珍), SEO JUNG JIN. ChosunMedia. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  2. ^ a b c d 장, 은파 (2024-09-27). "[Who Is ?] 서정진 셀트리온그룹 회장". 비즈니스포스트 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  3. ^ "Seo Jung-jin". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  4. ^ Wang, Cat (2024-04-17). "Billionaire Founder Of Korean Biotech Giant Celltrion Comes Out Of Retirement To Fulfill Global Ambitions". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  5. ^ "Celltrion founder Seo Jung-jin to return as board chairman of Celltrion Holdings". Korea JoongAng Daily. 2023-03-03. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Celltrion unsettled on reports founder has 2 extramarital daughters". Korea JoongAng Daily. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  7. ^ "Owner family strengthens control of Celltrion". The Korea Times. 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-12-17.
  8. ^ "Celltrion chairman's shunned daughters seen as risk to company governance". The Korea Times. 2023-05-04. Retrieved 2024-12-17.