Suh Kyung-bae (; born January 14, 1963) is a South Korean

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of

Amorepacific Corporation Amorepacific Corporation () is a South Korean beauty and cosmetics chaebol, operating more than 30 beauty, personal care, and health brands including Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Etude, Aestura, Cosrx, AP Beauty, and Innisfree. The firm was founded in ...

, a Korean cosmetics company founded by his father Suh Sung-whan in 1945. He is among the richest people in South Korea, with

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

in December 2024 estimating his net worth at

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1.1 billion and ranking him 21st richest in the country.

Early life

Suh Kyung-bae was born in South Korea in 1963. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from

Yonsei University Yonsei University () is a Private university, private Christian university, Christian research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Yonsei is one of the three most prestigious universities in the country, part of a group referred to as SK ...

and an MBA from

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management The Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management is the graduate business school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Established in 1946, Johnson is one of six List of Ivy League business schools ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Career

In 1997, Suh inherited the company from his father and guided the company's global expansion. According to ''

'', Amorepacific became one of the world's 100 most innovative companies. In 2006, Suh received the Légion d'honneur from the French government. In 2015, he was selected as "Businessman of the Year" by Forbes Asia Magazine and in 2017, was ranked world's 20th, Asia's 2nd best-performing CEO by Harvard Business Review and INSEAD Business School. Suh is married, with two children, and lives in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Non-profit work

In 2016, Suh established Suh Kyung-bae Foundation. Since 2017, the foundation has awarded 14 scientists grants of between 1.5 billion and 2.5 billion won.

References

1963 births Living people Amorepacific Corporation Yonsei University alumni South Korean billionaires Kyung-bae Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management alumni 21st-century South Korean businesspeople 20th-century South Korean businesspeople {{SouthKorea-business-bio-stub