The late chairman Cho Yang-ho of Hanjin Group. (Photo: Hanjin Group)

The sudden death of Chairman Cho Yang-ho of Hanjin Group and Korean Air has put the business group into an emergency management mode, and his son and Korean Air President Cho Won-tae, is expected to emerge to the management front as his 3rd generation successor. Chairman Cho died at a U.S. hospital in Los Angeles after being treated for cancer on April 8. He was 70.

Chairman Cho had been receiving a treatment on lung cancer in Los Angeles since last December, and the chairman, recovering from an operation, took a turn for the worse following the shock and stress caused by his removal from an inside director of Korean Air at a shareholders’ meeting, a group official said.

Cho failed to gain reelection on the board of Korean Air due to the opposition from the National Pension Fund at the shareholder meeting on March 27 and he also stepped down from CEO of Korean Air, a job he had assumed for 20 years from 1999.

The late Cho is bereaved by his wife Lee Myung-hee, former chairman of the Ilwoo Foundation; his son and Korean Air President Cho Won-tae; her eldest daughter and ex-Korean Air senior executive vice president Cho Hyun-ah; and second daughter and former Korean Air executive vice president Cho Hyun-min.

The industry community paid tribute to the late Chairman Cho’s contributing to the development of the Korean aviation industry and the national economy. Cho held major positions such as maintenance, procurement, planning and sales after he entered Korean Air in 1974.

He was promoted to president in 1992, and he took office as chairman of Hanjin Group, succeeding his father and late founder Cho Choong-hoon in 2003.

The late Cho had been credited with catapulting Korean Air, marking the 50th anniversary, to a global airliner. He was praised for his contributing to enhancing Korea’s say in the global aviation industry as he had served as a key member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), dubbed as the United Nations of the global aviation industry, since 1996.

Cho was also lauded for his major roles in Korea’s winning the right to host the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. The late Cho contributed to Korea’s attracting the Winter Olympiad by making overseas trips on about 50 occasions to gain support from several countries for one year and 10 months since he took office as chairman of the organizing committee of the PyeongChang Olympiad in 2009.

Korean Air President Kim is expected to take office as chairman, following in the late chairman Cho’s footsteps. Following the death of the late Chairman Cho, Hanjin Group has entered an emergency management mode.

The group plans to make a decision on major pending issues at group presidents’ meetings. Chances are high that Korean Air Cho will steer the group with assistance from professional managers such as President Suk Tae-soo of Hanjin KAL Corp., Senior Executive Vice President Woo Ki-hong of Korean Air and President Suh Yong-won of Hanjin for the time being.

Korea Air President Cho also serves as president of Hanjin KAL, the holding company of the group, and president of Hanjin Information Systems & Communication, the group’s IT subsidiary. He concurrently assumes an inside director of Jungseok Enterprise, owner of properties such as Hanjin Building in Sogong-dong, downtown Seoul, as part of his efforts to strengthen his influence over the group.

President Cho graduated from Inha University Business Administration Department and University of Southern California Business Administration Graduate School. He entered deputy general manager with Hanjin Information Systems & Communications in 2003 before he assumed a stint as head of the passenger business division, a key division of Korean Air, in 2009.

He held major positions such as chief of the cargo business headquarters before he was promoted to president of Korean Air in 2017. President Cho, who has called himself as CEO-cum-staff member, has been out to communicate with his executives and staff. Thanks to his efforts, Korean Air pilots’ union was persuaded to withdraw a strike in March 2017.

As the late Chairman Cho left for the United States for a medical treatment last December, President Cho has kept a high profile to take to the management front by presiding over this a ceremony to kick off the 2019 business year and an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary in March. At his 50th anniversary speech, President Cho called for renewing Korean Air for the next 100 years by “making the airliner the wings of all members of society so that they can dream for a better life.”

If President Cho will take over the group’s management rights, he has to inherit from the late Cho’s 17.84 percent stake in the holding company Hanjin KAL.

Hanjin Group has a corporate governance structure in which Hanjin KAL Corp., Korean Air/Hanjin, and grandson companies have cross-holdings in that order. President Cho owns a 2.34 percent stake in Hanjin KAL, followed by Cho Hyun-ah with a 2.31 percent share, and Cho Hyun-min with a 2.3 percent stake.

The sudden death of the late Chairman Cho did not give any heir-apparent enough time to take over the management rights of the group.