Cho Jung-ho
South Korean billionaire (born 1958)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cho Jung-ho (Korean: 조정호; born October 5, 1958[2]) is a South Korean businessman and chairman of Meritz Financial Group.[2] He is among the richest people in South Korea, with Forbes giving his net worth in December 2024 as US$6.8 billion and ranking him the fourth richest person in the country.[3]
Biography
Cho was born on October 5, 1958, in Incheon, South Korea as the fourth and youngest son of magnate Cho Choong-hoon, founder of the conglomerate Hanjin.[2][4] He attended high school in Boston, United States and graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Southern California. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland.[2]
He worked at Korean Air as a manager in its European headquarters, then moved to Hanil Securities (한일증권). In 1989, he became a director at Hanjin Investment & Securities.[3] In 2005, he broke the company off of Hanjin and renamed it Meritz, and became its chairman.[5][2] The company reportedly rapidly grew thereafter.[5]
He has announced that he had no intention of passing the company onto his children.[4]