Professor Sung Joo Park at the KAIST Business School has arrived at Tsinghua SEM on June 2, 2008 for a six-day visit. Professor Park was the former dean and Vice President of KAIST and served as the founding President of AAPBS. He also served as a member of board of AACSB.

On June 2, Professor Park, who was an advisor or consulting professor for Samsung Group for 10 years including the companies like Samsung Corning, Samsung SDS, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (R&D Think-Tank) among others delivered a speech entitled “What happened in Samsung? ---An Asian management perspective.”

On April 18 in 2008, the Chairman Lee Kun-hee of Samsung Group, the largest conglomerate or Chaebol in Korea, was charged with tax evasion and breach of trust, and consequently a couple of days later, he announced to step down from the Chairmanship.To understand the roots of the scandal, various aspects of Samsung were discussed in Professor Park’s lecture including the history of Samsung, success of Samsung Electronics, success story under Lee K.H.’s leadership, management culture, leadership characteristics, decisive actions taken, etc. Meanwhile, special emphasis of the lecture was on the conflicts between the Asian and Western management which led the dilemma that many Asian companies are experiencing or facing. Samsung scandal is one example of these conflicts and Sony case of current difficulty may be the severer example.

Professor Park also illustrated and proposed successful Asian management models for globalization based on the Asian way of thinking which is an imperative for Asian economies to be global and advanced in the 21st Century.

After lecture, Professor Park donated RMB 30,000 for the quake-hit area in China. Professor Park will discuss with SEM faculty members over research projects on the Asian management/leadership in the following days.

Professor Sung Joo Park also served as a member of board of AACSB. He received Ph.D. at the Michigan State University in 1978 and worked for the KAIST since 1980. He was a member of Korean Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology and currently is a life-time member of the Korean Academy of Science & Technology.