Suh Kyung-bae
Seoul, South Korea
Bachelor of Arts/Science, Yonsei University | Master of Business Administration, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
South Korea
Amorepacific
cosmetics
$3,200,000,000
568
#6 Korea's 50 Richest 2019
#568 Billionaires 2019
Suh Kyung-bae is the chairman of AmorePacific, South Korea's largest cosmetic and skincare maker with $5.6 billion in sales. He is capitalizing on the Hallyu wave, a keen interest in Korean pop culture that has swept Asia and the U.S., through product placements and celebrity endorsements. His company was the pioneer in cushion compact technology --liquid foundation in a compact form-- which spurred beauty giants L'Oreal and Christian Dior to quickly follow suit. The only one out of six children interested in the business, Suh joined the company in the 1980s and became CEO in 1997.
Amorepacific traces its roots to Suh's grandmother, who sold camellia oil as a hair treatment across the Korean peninsula. In the 1960s Amorepacific hired women who went go door to door selling products on commission; some of them had lost their husbands in the Korean War.
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