Koo Bon-moo ( ko, 구본무; 10 February 1945 – 20 May 2018) was a South Korean business executive, who gained worldwide fame as the renamer and business executive of the

LG Group LG Corporation (or LG Group) (), formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995 (Korean: ''Leokki Geumseong''; ), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is ...

Early life

Born on 10 February 1945 in Jinju,

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World H ...

, Koo enrolled at

Yonsei University Yonsei University (; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the " SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in th ...

. He moved to

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at Ashland University and Cleveland State University, respectively.

Business career

Upon graduation from Cleveland State University, Koo returned to South Korea in 1975 and began working for Lucky Chemical, which later became

LG Chem LG Chem Ltd. (Korean: LG화학), often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was the 10th largest chemical company in the world by sales in 2017. It was first established ...

. He was transferred to GoldStar in 1980, and from 1983 to 1985, headed the company's Tokyo office. In 1995, Koo succeeded his father

Koo Cha-kyung Koo Cha-kyung () (24 April 1925 – 14 December 2019) was a South Korean business executive. He was the chairman of LG Group from 1970 until his retirement in 1995. He took the company public in 1970 and was chairman during the company's growth ...

, the oldest son of LG's founder Koo In-hwoi as chairman of

because of the Koo family's “male-only succession rule". Koo Bon-moo adopted his nephew Koo Kwang-mo in 2004, after losing his only son in 1994. Starting in 2017, Koo Bon-moo sought continual treatment for a brain tumor. He eventually ended medical treatment, and died in Seoul on 20 May 2018, aged 73.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koo, Bon-moo 1947 births 2018 deaths South Korean billionaires South Korean business executives 20th-century South Korean businesspeople 21st-century South Korean businesspeople People from Jinju Yonsei University alumni Cleveland State University alumni Ashland University alumni Deaths from brain cancer in South Korea LG Corporation FC Seoul directors and chairmen South Korean Buddhists