Kudos for Mirae Asset’s Growth

Ernst and Young gives Chmn. Park its Entrepreneur of the Year Award in recognition of managerial achievements

Chairman Park Hyeon-joo of Mirae Asset Management Co. won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst and Young Co., a well known global accounting firm, at an award ceremony in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on June 6, the company said recently.
Mirae Asset Chairman Park won the award for his leadership in the rapid growth of the company’s assets to $58 billion, although the company is only 13 years old.
During his acceptance speech at the ceremony held at Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Park said an entrepreneurial spirit is made with two eyes, one eye for the present and the other for the future, winning high marks from the juries at the gathering.
President Kwon Seung-hwa of Ernst and Young Korea said Chairman Park failed to win the global entrepreneurial award by a small margin, but nevertheless, he has been able to boost the prestige of the Korean business community.
The award winner told a local paper following the award presentation that, for the first time, the emerging market funds sold in Korea would reach over 1 trillion won including the Korea Fund for the first time this year. He said he will expand the operation of Mirae Asset in the United States this year in order to increase the sales of the emerging market fund through the New York subsidiary and will soon increase the number of its staff to 100 from the current 25 so that Mirae Asset will be able to compete toe-to-toe with such global fund managing companies as Schroeder and Templeton.
Park said that Mirae Asset will be a top emerging market fund manager in the world as long as he is the CEO.
He also divulged his management plan for the fund. He said the fund will increase investments in bonds in Brazil while he will keep investments in China at the current level for a while until new momentum kicks in, all the while looking for new opportunities.
He also made public a plan to have all of Mirae Asset companies relocate to the headquarters building in Yeouido, Seoul, in a year or two from their offices in three different locations in Seoul.
In the meantime, Harvard business school has picked the Korean financial group and its founder for a case study. Mirae Asset Financial Group, the nation’s leading investment and securities firm, and its founder and chairman, Park, will be studied at the prestigious university in the United States.
Professor Mukti Khaire will lead the class called “International Entrepreneurship,” with topics on “Mirae Asset’s Story in Global Growth” and “Entrepreneurship of Chairman Park Hyeon-joo.”
Harvard has done case studies of global companies in the past, paying close attention to 14 aspects of their businesses including strategies, financing and marketing.
Global companies, including GE, Proctor & Gamble and Apple have been studied in the MBA program. Among Korean companies, Samsung’s business strategy and Shinhan Bank’s mergers and acquisitions have been discussed in the class.
Harvard became interested in Mirae Asset’s ability to create an asset management market in Korea, according to the company. “Harvard University evaluated our strategy to make a new market in Korea, where not much demand existed for asset management,” said, Hwang Yoon-ju, a public relations representative at Mirae Asset.
Professor Khaire interviewed Chairman Park on the campus of the school in November and researchers of Harvard visited the company and talked with the CEO of the financial group last month.
The class will deal with every process of the company including its foundation, overcoming the global crisis, its business philosophy and its strategy for the global market. The structure of Mirae Asset and reasons for its growth will also be examined.
“It is meaningful because the Harvard case study means that we are recognized globally,” Ha Woo-sung, chief operating officer of the group, said in a press release. “We will do our best to strengthen our global competitiveness.” nw

Chairman Park Hyeon-joo of Mirae Asset Management Co.