Corporate Legacies: In Conversation with YD Kim

Details: Friday, September 27 , 2013 | 12:00 PM

About the Speaker Title: Corporate Legacies: In Conversation with YD Kim
About the Speaker: 2013-09-27 12:00:00
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Event Link: Dr. Kim was born in Jang Jeon, small harbor town, near Diamond Mountain in Northern Korea. During his early years he grew up growing up under Japanese colonial rule, Russian occupation and North Korean communist rule before he and his family escaped south, crossing the 38th parallel in 1946. He was a high school student during the Korean War and was accepted to the engineering college of Seoul National University in 1953. Upon graduating with a B.Sc. in civil engineering he joined the ROK Navy as a Civil Engineering Corp officer and served for 5 years including a year with US Navy Construction Battalion at Port Hueneme, California. Discharged from the navy in 1963 he then proceeded to the University Of Western Ontario, Canada where he earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and worked for consulting firms in Toronto and New York City before he joining Hyundai Group in 1975. As an advisor to Chairman Chung Ju Yung, the founder of Hyundai, taking up several managerial roles as an executive VP in Hyundai Engineering Construction Co., EVP of the world’s largest ship builder Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and president and CEO of Hyundai Corporation USA, Dr. Kim played key role to make The Hyundai what it is today. As one of the founder of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industries in USA (Kocham) in 1993 he contributed significantly to improve US – Korea trade relations and investment conditions. He has been on the board of the Korea Society since 1987 and, as the longest serving member of the board, has always been a proponent of strong US-Korea relations. After retiring from Hyundai in 1997 he has devoted himself to the work for the Korean and Asian American communities in the metro New York area. In order to improve the quality of life of Asian Americans he joined on the Board of Asian American Federation in 1999 which is an umbrella organization of 45 human service organizations and served 4 years as board chairperson. To promote leadership training of the next generation Asian Americans he joined the Korean American League for Civic Action (KALCA) in 2000 and has been actively involved in educating and supporting of young Asian Americans. He has also joined NY/NJ Korean American Voters Council and has been active with voter registration and education drive in order to empower the Asian American communities in the political arena. He played key role in organizing grass root movement of Asian American communitiesto achieve passing of House Resolution 121 “Japanese army’s abuse of Korean comfort woman during the World War II” in 2007. Understanding the importance of identity issues for new generations of Korean Americans he joined in creating Korean Language Association, which primarily promotes installation of Korean Language courses in American public schools. KLA worked with NYU and Rutgers U to establish Korean language certificate courses. Last year he joined several prominent Korean Americans and Koreans in establishing The Global Society of Korea and America (GSKA). The GSKAis now a member of steering committee of the UN GAID (Global Alliance for Information, Communication Technology and Development) “500/12 Initiative” which plans to supply 500,000 computers to 60 developing countries (330,000 students) by 2012. He has been active in this ambitious UN project. He resides in town of Westport, CT with his wife Jae Jin and has two children, Larry and Eleana.
Podcast URL: STEPHEN NOERPER: (Moderator)   We are delighted to have you here as guests for another discussion in our Legacies in Korea-U.S. Relations series. This series was created to celebrate those who have contributed through leadership—be it in policy, economics, business life or humanitarian affairs. For our one-year anniversary event, we are joined today by Dr. Kim Yung Duk, an interesting, influential and informed thinker.   Dr. Kim has worked tirelessly on behalf of Korean-Americans and has made great contributions to The Korea Society for decades, as well. We're very grateful to have him here today to share his views on Korea-U.S. business relations as well as to discuss his legacy.   Let's begin by talking a little bit about your personal experiences as a young man. You grew up under Japanese colonial occupation, under Russian occupation and then under the North Korean regime. I'm wondering, YD, if you could tell us a bit about those early years and the formative impact they had on your life.   KIM YUNG DUK:   Thank you, Stephen. That's an excellent question. I was born under Japanese colonial rule. I remember not being allowed to speak Korean in public school—to use the Korean language at all. I had to be called by my Japanese name.   In 1945, the Russian soldiers arrived. That was my first encounter with Europeans or "foreigners." We met some Chinese people, but they were of European origin. That was a very interesting experience. I learned a few Russian words. They stayed only a year or two and then retreated. Soon after that North Koreans arrived and formed a Communist government.   One of the first things the North Koreans did was to persecute Christians and landowners. My family did not have a lot of land, but we were a Christian family and we owned a small but famous sardine factory in Jang Jeon, my hometown. We left Jang Jeon in the early spring of 1947. We went to Ch'ŏrwŏn by train and then crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea. I've been a refugee ever since.   Now I had to learn Han'gŭl and pass the examination for middle school. I was living in Daejeon but couldn't get into any school. Luckily for me I met a well-known poet who was a Buddhist. He took an abandoned Buddhist temple in downtown Daejeon and started teaching Korean to children—older refugees who had never been trained in Han'gŭl. That was such a blessing for me, because I was younger than many of the other children. I also met a wonderful English teacher—a professor from Guangdong University. He started working with my other teacher. I was so blessed to meet those two wonderful people and I learned both Korean and English—which really helped me in my later days.   STEPHEN NOERPER:   As you moved through life, you adapted to many different challenges as they came your way. I'd like to move to your career and early efforts in business. You're a classically-trained engineer and you actually left Korea when "Global Korea" was very much in its infancy.   KIM YUNG DUK:   I was accepted into Seoul University's engineering school in 1953 (this year marks our 60th anniversary). I decided to study engineering because a minister of my Christian church said to me one day: "Korea is devastated by war and there is a lot of opportunity for reconstruction. Civil engineering is probably the best career for you." I didn't know what civil engineering was—but I took the examination and somehow was accepted. I think I was accepted because it was right before the end of the war.   After I received a civilian degree, I served in the Korean Navy as a Civil Engineering Corps Officer for five years—from 1958 to 1963. It is a tradition in Korea for civil engineers to serve in the Navy. When I joined, I was put in charge of ten or fifteen experienced civil engineers.   After a couple of years, they suggested I go to the United States and I took the opportunity. I went to a Construction Battalion Center (CBs) in Port Hueneme, California. CBs were very well known at the time because they were very active in the invasion phase of World War II. I spent a year there and focused on studying construction equipment management along with nuclear shelter design (something which was really popular at the time).   STEPHEN NOERPER:   Because of the Korean Cold War…   KIM YUNG DUK:   Yes. After serving two years at Port Hueneme, I left the Navy. I applied to MIT and was accepted, but could not get a full scholarship. Fortunately, I had a friend who was a Canadian missionary (I met him in 1955 when I came to Seoul). He told me of a full scholarship available at the University of Western Ontario. That's where I went.   STEPHEN NOERPER:   You then went to work for a Canadian company. Is that right? KIM YUNG DUK:   I received my PhD. My advisor was Dr. Hugh Golder, a pioneer in our field and well known throughout the world. He had left Harvard's engineering school and moved to Canada to open a consulting firm with some associates. I worked in Toronto with Dr. Golder from about 1967 through 1973.   I then moved to New York City—to 49th and Madison—not very far from here. I went to work for Mueser, Rutledge, Wentworth & Johnston, a renowned civil engineering company. My wife had just finished her medical residency at Tufts and could only get a job in New York—so I moved here.   STEPHEN NOERPER:   And then at that point, something took you to the Middle East and you met Chung Ju Yang.   KIM YUNG DUK:   While with the Canadian consulting company, I had spent over three years in Greece building the largest earth-filled dams in Europe. I was part of the consulting team and in charge of rock mechanics. Before that, I went to Peru. I also did many projects in the United States and Canada. Now I was in the United States. My company was looking to send someone with experience to work at Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Remember in 1973 and 1974 was the oil shock…   STEPHEN NOERPER:   Sure…   KIM YUNG DUK:   Saudi Aramco was building as many oil infrastructures as fast as they could and they needed someone to oversee foundation operations and design for oil platforms. Mueser Rutledge was the best known engineering company in the world at the time, so Aramco asked them to send a senior engineer. Most of my colleagues didn't want to go and I was a natural choice. My boss offered to triple my wages and give my family a one-month paid holiday. I took that job.   As soon as I arrived in Aramco, I was rewriting most of the construction specifications related to my specialty—foundations—anything under the ground you can't see. That's a very important part of construction work because it's where you either make money or lose money.   Two American companies (McDermott, and Brown and Root) were building oil facilities in the Arabian Gulf. One day I was reviewing some of their data and heard that a Korean company named Hyundai had just landed one of the largest harbor projects in the area—for the price of $1 billion. (If you search Google, the Korean government's budget was just over $2 billion at that time. Today it's around $320 billion). This project was about one-half of the Korean government's budget and the Saudi government wouldn’t sign the contract without a guarantee by the Korean government.   The founder of Hyundai, Chung Ju Yung, was able to get President Park Chung-hee's backing, so the foreign exchange bank issued the guarantee for that project. That's how Hyundai landed the deal.   The size and enormity of the project was a challenge for a company like Hyundai. There were some technical complications. Hyundai had never done that kind of project before—in particular loading and unloading all the oil and chemical products from five supertankers. Apparently once Chung Ju Yung took that responsibility, he never again slept well at night. Regardless, I was there. It was the right time…   STEPHEN NOERPER:   And the right place. You said Chung Ju Yung was a great risk taker and that because you were a Korean-American, he believed he was taking a bit of a risk himself—that he identified you in that sense.   KIM YUNG DUK:   Yes. I was a Korean-American and also the first engineering PhD Hyundai ever had. Of course later when Hyundai started manufacturing electronics they hired hundreds of PhDs. I was in a very unique position and he didn't know what position to give me. Former President MB Lee was the president. He was much younger than me yet a very capable president.   He decided I would be his technical advisor. He was meeting heads of state as well as executives of major corporations and he needed someone with a strong technical background who could speak English well. It turned out to be very convenient for him. I served that role for him, but more importantly I was the person to help him solve all of the technical problems at Jubail Industrial Harbor.   One of the most important issues was building ten-story steel structures (eighty-nine to be exact). They'd transport them from Busan to Saudi Arabia—that's almost 10,000 kilometers through the South China Sea. There were monsoons in the Indian Ocean. We moved about nineteen shipments. But Hyundai has very large shipbuilding facilities, so they knew how to build structures like that. They knew how to handle steel. They had the largest presses on the market. They had also developed automatic welding technology. In the beginning of 1973 a shipyard was started.   The most important problems were underwater and underground. They had to install between 300 and 400 large diameter steel piles. The diameters were six feet with steel walls two to three inches thick. At that time, the only countries that could produce those were Japan and the U.S. Each pile weighed about 100 tons. We had to install those under 100 feet of water and then go another hundred feet into the ground. Fortunately, I was also a geologist, so I was able to assess the situation. That area was made up of weathered limestone—something very difficult to penetrate.   The major part of our problem centered around storage. We had about 400 or 500 piles and based upon the lack of storage, it would have taken us between five and ten years (instead of two to three years) to finish the project. That was unthinkable when considering the size of that project and its importance for Hyundai and for Korea. We had to find a way to get the piles installed faster.   One day I was looking at the Brown and Root, and McDermott, installation data, and I found the name of a manufacturer who sells this huge hammer-type product that would push hundred-ton piles through rock. We purchased those. I also found in the Brown and Root data that these hammers were able to produce from 150 to 200 blows at a time. I experimented again—driving a pile using 200 blows. I was able to penetrate most of the rocks without any problem. That would take several days. We'd cut the pipe. We'd drill the hole. We'd drive the pile again. We would never have completed that project had we not had those special hammers.   STEPHEN NOERPER:   When you hear this dynamic—which was so very much hands-on and very much real-world—it must make your memories of the corporate boardroom a much softer reality than driving loads and breaking rocks. Let me ask you one last question and then we'll get some questions from our studio audience.   You're an individual who dealt, at an early age, with dislocation and the challenges brought about by the colonial era and the war years. You adapted. You traveled throughout much of your education, as well as your early professional life to the four corners of the world. You were very much the explorer. You then had the opportunity to have Chung Ju Yung—one of Korea's early corporate mavericks—season you … you being somebody who is also brilliant, an explorer and perhaps a maverick, as well.   Yet, you're a specialist. You're a CB who lays bridges and you're a specialist who knows foundations. Then you enter corporate life here in America and enhance that sphere, as well, creating greater opportunities for Korea-U.S. business engagement and laying a foundation for understanding and cooperation. I'm wondering if you might tell us how that all came together and what your perception of your legacy looks like.   KIM YUNG DUK:   What I did for Hyundai was to develop and oversee the start of their offshore engineering and development business—oil and gas exploration along with the design, fabrication and installation of oil and gas platforms. In 1981 or 1982, only a few U.S. and European companies were involved in that business. The Japanese wanted to get in. I made a proposal to Chung Ju Yung. As I said, he was forward looking and a risk taker. Whenever he determined something was right and he saw an opportunity, he really moved.   That's how we started that business in offshore gas and oil exploration—because we had a big shipyard. I am very proud of that business. It's the largest shelf business in the world today, and I don't think anybody can compete with our company. The same goes for shipbuilding. Korean shipbuilding businesses are the largest in the world.   I came back to Hyundai Corporation USA (which is essentially a trading company). At that time, almost 30% to 40% of total Korean trade was dependent on the United States and that was very important to our market. We have a saying among Korean companies—that once anything is tested in the U.S., it will sell much better than if it's tested anywhere else in the world. Korean companies came to the U.S. and did their tests with U.S. consumers because the U.S. market is the toughest market of all.   Now look at the automobile. In 1987, I was moved here. I helped them start up some small parts of the organization. Not only were we doing very well, we were actually doing much better here than any other place in the world. That's how important the U.S. market is.   At that time, the Korean government wanted more lobbying efforts with the U.S. Congress and government officials. In the United States, AMCHAM (American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul) is very effective, but we didn't have a counterpart here. I suggested to the leaders of Korean companies that we found the Korea Chamber of Commerce.   I served as president for two terms. I think KOCHAM has become really effective in not only lobbying but as an organization for collective efforts by all Korean companies working with the U.S. I work very closely with the U.S.-Korea Business Council. That organization is doing very well to enhance U.S-Korea business opportunities. And of course the 2010 U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement has played a role, as well. But the Korea Chamber was integral to getting the FTA passed.   STEPHEN NOERPER:   Dr. Kim, thank you. We thank you for your positivity. We thank you for your life story. We thank you for numerous contributions—not only to the corporate community but for all you've done for Korea-U.S. relations—enhancing the understanding between the peoples of Korea and the United States. Thank you Dr. Kim. [Applause]   KIM YUNG DUK:   Thank you.
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Former senior advisor to the late corporate maverick Chung Ju Yung of Hyundai, Dr. Kim Yung Duk, a trained engineer, served as an executive vice president of Hyundai Engineering Construction Company, executive vice president of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, and president and CEO of Hyundai Corporation USA. In conversation with The Korea Society’s Ambassador Mark Minton, Dr. Kim reflects on his early years, when he witnessed Japanese colonial rule, Russian occupation, and North Korean communist rule, speaks to his global explorations for Hyundai, and reflects on a lifetime dedicated to enhancing U.S.-Korea business relations.