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Dr. Sehoon Lee, WG'75
By Kelly J. Andrews
Wharton had no active presence in South
Korea until Dr. Sehoon Lee met with Wharton
Alumni Affairs in the winter of 1988.
Inspired, Lee offered to gather alumni together, but
pulling together a complete alumni mailing list was challenging.
The HanGlas Group executive seized the initiative
and bought an ad in the most prominent Korean business
newspaper to invite all Wharton graduates to dinner.
Seventy-five people—including the Minister of Trade
and Industry and several CEOs of large Korean companies—showed up.
Based on the success of the first dinner, the alumni reactivated
the Wharton Club of Korea. Lee served for more
than 10 years as president of the club, raising Wharton's
profile to the extent that Korea is the fourth-largest source
of MBA students (after the U.S., China, and India). The
Wharton Club of Korea now has more than 300 members.
Since that time, Lee has faced the issue of globalization
from two perspectives. First, as CEO and president of HanGlas
Group, he restructured the glass-making firm to allow his
nationally dominant company to compete in the burgeoning
Northeast Asian market. And second, as a charter member of
the Wharton Executive Board for Asia, he has helped Wharton
expand its global presence.
After graduating with a Wharton MBA and working at
Citibank, Lee returned to South Korea as finance director for
HanGlas Group, which had been co-founded by his father
amid the devastation of the Korean War. At that time, the
company had annual of sales of US$35 million. By 1995, Lee
was the CEO, and HanGlas was a billion-dollar corporation.
Although the company was profitable, he believed it faced
considerable risk. Its debt level was high, and it was facing
competition from Chinese imports. He identified two core
businesses—architectural and automotive glass—and
decided to restructure, investing internationally in those core
areas, and selling off HanGlas subsidiaries that manufactured
other products.
The restructuring was completed in November 1997, and
the financial crisis hit Korea by December. With a lean operation
and negative debt, the company withstood the turmoil
and even consolidated its position.
To further shore up its global competitiveness, in 1998 Lee
expanded a business association with Saint-Gobain Group, a
French-based glass and building materials giant, into a full
strategic alliance. Lee has served as chairman since 2000.
Throughout his professional endeavors, Lee has continued
his activities for the Wharton Executive Board for Asia.
Since he reconnected with Wharton in 1988, he has created a
scholarship program under the sponsorship of HanGlas Group
for MBA students from emerging economies, including China,
Colombia, and russia. In 1999, Lee served as the Chairman of
the Organizing Committee for the successful Wharton Global
Alumni Forum held in Seoul.
He has been active in developing a culture of giving
among his fellow Wharton alumni in Asia. rather than
waiting for decades to become involved, Lee encourages
recent graduates to begin giving back in smaller sums
immediately. During the last fund-raising campaign, Lee
was the Chairman of the Development Committee of the
Executive Board of Asia. Under his leadership, donations
from Asian alumni grew exponentially and contributed materially
to the success of the campaign.
In 1994 Lee received the Wharton Alumni Award for
Distinguished Service, an award that has been given only
36 times in the history of the school. He has also been
honored twice by the French government with the Chevalier
and Officier de la Legion d'Honneur because of his work in
promoting Franco-Korean business ties.
"My two years at Wharton meant a lot to me personally,
and ever since I graduated, it has meant a lot in terms of
my professional career," explains Lee. "My involvement is
a small way of repaying my indebtedness to the school."
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