Kwangdong Pharmaceutical founder passes away

Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical Chairman Choi Soo-boo was found dead from a heart attack at a golf resort in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province Wednesday. He was a legendary figure in oriental pharmaceuticals circle.

Born in 1936 at Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, as the second child in a family with five sons and two daughters, Choi quit school when he was a fourth grader. Unable to tolerate being bullied by Japanese students as "Josenjin," depreciating word for Korean, he beat Japanese classmates and was expelled from school. He came to Korea after liberation, but soon had to earn money for his family when his father squandered all of family money. At age 12, he became the breadwinner of a nine-member family. At an autobiography, Choi wrote, "I made a living by cutting and selling wood, raising melons in the sand, and selling tobaccos and candies."

After completing military service in 1960, Choi became a salesperson at Korea Ginseng Corporation. By tenacity, he won the top salesperson award for three straight years, collecting seed money for starting business. By 1963, he started a business that now became Kwang Dong Pharmaceutical in Yongsan District in Seoul, and began selling restorative herb medicine called "Gyeongokgo." He developed "Geobuk Woohwangcheongsimwon" in 1973 and a herb tonic tea "Kwang Dong Ssanghwatang" in 1975, both of which became the company`s core product. The two products helped the company become a leading pharmaceuticals company in Korea.

Choi got a nickname "persistent Choi" after he appeared at a woohwangcheongsimwon ad where he persistently verified and confirmed drug materials. He had said at the ad, "I have been selecting woohwang and sahyang myself for the past 30 years," which made deep an impression on customers` minds. The Asian currency crisis forced the company to suffer risk of bankruptcy in 1998, but Choi turned the company around by injecting his personal money while asking employees to give up bonus.

Entering the 2000s, the company made another major leap. In 2001, Choi released energy drink "Vita 500" and "Corn Silk Tea," changing the landscape of Korea`s beverage market. A famous episode is that he rejected 50 times the trial product of Vita 500. Consequently in 2005, the beverage overtook Donga Pharmaceutical`s "Bacchus" that had maintained No. 1 sales in the energy drink market for 41 years.

At an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo, Choi had said, "A company is a living creature. It can`t survive without constantly changing and investing." At an old age, Choi is known to have meticulously taken care of pending business issues before going on vacation where he had a tragic death.

Gaining recognition for his remarkable contribution to the growth of Korea`s pharmaceuticals industry and corporate culture, Choi had received the Order of Civil Merit, Magnolia Medal (2006) and was rewarded an entrepreneur award a number of times by domestic and foreign institutions including the Korean Academic Association of Business Administration (2008). He published a book titled "Business is About Perseverance" in 2004. He has a son and two daughters. His son is Choi Sung-won, CEO of Kwang Dong Pharmaceuticals, and Lee Kang-nam, chairman of the board of Kwang Dong Oriental Hospital is his third son-in-law.