Top executives of Korean Re wash the feet of their employees 

during the reinsurance firm‘s 50th anniversary ceremony on 

March 19 at the company’ s head office in Susong-dong, Seoul.

Korea Reinsurance Corp. celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 19 in a ceremony held at the company’ s head office in Susong-dong, downtown Seoul, with some 300 of its officers, staff, and guests from the insurance related companies in attendance.

The ceremony included the presentations of citations for long-term employment, model employees, and excellent achievements, as well as feet washing. The book titled “50 years of History of Korean Re” was unveiled at the ceremony following a tree planting.

President Park Jong-won, in his congratulatory speech, said Korean Re was able to rank among the top 10 reinsurance firms in the world last year due to creativity and a positive corporate culture that were developed after getting rid of the old way of thinking, calling on all of the officers and staff of the company to face the future with a solid corporate culture and a daring manner to fight their way out of any difficulties, armed with the spirit of a soldier who can fight a hundred enemy soldiers alone.

What attracted the most attention at the ceremony was the feet washing, an event to show respect for each other in which Senior officers washed their staff’ s feet and vice versa. The executives washed the feet of their staff to show that the company’ s excellent performance record was owed to their hard work. Managers washed the feet of their wives and children to thank them for their support for them at home.

A manager said he has been able to work hard at the office due to his wife’ s support like a pillar supporting the roof of their house. He said he couldn’ t say enough to thank her, but washing her feet conveyed his love and respect for his wife in a way that he couldn’ t do in normal times. 

Since its foundation in 1962, Korean Re, the only state-run reinsurance firm, has grown rapidly, especially since its privatization in 1978 and its near bankruptcy  the 1998 financial crisis. The company grew fast and had an annual turnover of 5.18 trillion won in 2011.

Korean Re’ s management vision is to realize global management to become one of the world’ s top 10 reinsurance companies by 2020. In order to do this, it will employ the following strategies: Optimization of productivity through the principle of having the business run by a few good people; building the world’ s best innovative moral and professional human resources though continued investment; the realization of a corporate culture that has a competitive edge through an advanced, transparent organizational system and responsible relationships between the company and its employees; and practicing social responsibility by being a company that returns its corporate profit to society.

Families of employees of Korean Re gathered at Seoul Plaza Hotel to attend “Family Love Night” on Dec. 27. An address of welcome by Park Jong-won, the CEO of Korean Re, was followed by the awards ceremony. At the ceremony, bay tree, outstanding dissertation, the premier, the Fred awards were given to the honorees. Also, the attendees were able to look back on the past year as they watched a video clip of Korean Re in 2012. The grand finale of the night was the competition among six different teams composed of workers who performed. Presenting with enthusiastic performance and image, Team Everest, a team of new recruits, was awarded the grand prize. With the year coming to an end, a family photo shoot took place in front of the Himalaya photo exhibition in the lobby of the Korean Re building as families shared a last pleasant memory of the year.