Lee Ho-jin: “Securing New Growth Engines Is Urgent” ... Taekwang Founder Remembered on 30th Death Anniversary

[Financial News] Taekwang Group held a memorial service on the 27th marking the 30th anniversary of the death of its founder, the late former chairman Lee Im-yong. In his eulogy, Taekwang Industries adviser Lee Ho-jin stressed that the group’s core businesses are facing a battle for survival and that securing new growth engines is urgent.
According to Taekwang Group, around 270 executives and employees attended the memorial service held that day at Cinecube in the Heungkuk Life Insurance Building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. They included adviser Lee Ho-jin; Taekwang Industries representatives Chung In-cheol and Lee Bu-ui; Heungkuk Life Insurance CEO Kim Hyeong-pyo; Heungkuk Fire & Marine Insurance CEO Kim Dae-hyun; and Aekyung Industrial Co., Ltd. CEO Kim Sang-jun.
In his eulogy, Lee said, “The core businesses that have firmly supported Taekwang for around 70 years are facing a battle for survival,” adding, “Taekwang’s most urgent task now is to secure new growth engines.”
He cited the late chairman’s words, “The future does not simply arrive; it is something we create, and if we cannot create it ourselves, there is no future promised to us,” and stressed, “Let’s lay the groundwork for a new leap forward through bold change.”
A video depicting the deceased’s life and management philosophy was shown at the memorial service. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology was used to turn old photographs of him into a video. Music students receiving scholarships from the Ilju Academic and Cultural Foundation, which he founded, then held a memorial concert.
A memorial exhibition on the deceased’s life and the history of Taekwang Group’s growth is being held in the Cinecube lobby through November 8. The exhibition introduces the group’s business expansion and its scholarship, cultural and arts support activities, as well as the deceased’s sayings, voice recordings and personal effects.
In 1954, Lee, the former chairman, founded Taekwang Industrial Company, the predecessor of Taekwang Group. The company later expanded into textiles, petrochemicals and finance. It completed construction of the Ulsan acrylic plant in 1967 and acquired Heungkuk Life Insurance in 1973. In 1994, it began construction of a petrochemical plant.
He also took part in education and scholarship initiatives. In 1977, he established the Ilju Academy school foundation, and in 1990 he founded the Ilju Academic and Cultural Foundation to support scholarships, academic work and culture. Lee, who died in 1996, was posthumously awarded the Gold Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit that same year.

[email protected] Kim Mi-hee Reporter