Chey Tae Won is a Korean business man and the chairman of SK Group, Korea’s second largest conglomerate specialized in things like telecom, and also a SK Hynix, which is behind the making of Samsung phones chips.
Tae Won is a successful businessman and he sits atop a big conglomerate which is a force to reckon with in Korea and the world.
A court recently ordered Chey Tae Won to pay his wife, Roh Soh-yeong a whooping sum of $1 billion in divorce settlement. The have separated for a while now.
Let’s look into the biography, divorce, career, and education of the Korean mogul, Chey Tae Won.
Early Life and Biography
Chey Tae-won was born on the 3rd of December, 1960 in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. He is the eldest son of Chey Jong-hyun, the former chairman of Sunkyung Group, which is now known as SK Group.
Chey Tae-won attended Korea University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in physics, and later pursued a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago in the United States but did not complete the program.
Career
Chey joined SK Corp. as a manager and climbed the ranks to become the executive director of SK America and vice president of SK Corp. Following the death of his father, Chey Jong-hyun, he took over as the chairman of SK Group at the age of 38 without any management dispute. Under his leadership, SK Group has expanded into various sectors, including energy, chemicals, telecommunications, semiconductors, and biopharmaceuticals.
Chey has been instrumental in several key developments within the group, such as the merger deal of SK Hynix, which positioned the company as the world’s fourth-largest chipmaker. He has also served as Chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) since March 2021.
Wife of SK Group Owner, Children and Divorce
Roh Soh-yeong is the wife of Chey Tae-Won, the SK Group Owner. The couple however divorced in 2020 and it was finalized in 2024 after a court ordered Tae-won to pay $1 billion USD in divorce settlement.
Chey Tae-won met his wife in Chicago during his Phd program. Roh Soh-yeong is the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo. The couple married in 1988 and divorced in 2020. They have four children.
Chey Tae Won’s Net Worth
As of June 2021, Chey Tae-won’s net worth was estimated at US$3.6 billion, with the bulk of his fortune coming from SK Inc., the holding company of SK Group.
Chey Tae-won’s journey from the son of a business leader to becoming a significant figure in the South Korean economy is a testament to his strategic vision and leadership capabilities. His contributions to SK Group and the broader business community in South Korea have been widely recognized and respected.