Kang Shin-ho, late honorary chairman of Dong-A Socio Group / Courtesy of Dong-A Socio Group
Kang Shin-ho, honorary chairman of Dong-A Socio Group, passed away Tuesday after battles with chronic diseases. He was 96.
Kang was the second-generation entrepreneur of Dong-A Pharmaceutical. He is best known for his nickname, the Father of Bacchus, after developing the energy drink in 1961. It has long been a loved and representative product of the pharmaceutical firm.
He started his career at the company in 1959 after studying medicine at Seoul National University and the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Kang devoted his life to developing new drugs. He stood at the forefront in developing diabetes treatment Suganon, and Zydena, the world’s fourth treatment for erectile dysfunction.
He spearheaded Dong-A Pharmaceutical’s establishment of a research facility for the first time in the industry in 1977. Kang was also renowned for his management philosophy emphasize training of human resources. Against that backdrop, he built the industry’s first training facility back in 1980s in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
Kang had strong willingness to fulfill corporate social responsibility, and pushed for a corporate name change into Dong-A Socio Group in 1994 from the earlier Dong-A Pharmaceutical Group. He also spared no efforts in donation. In 1987, he built a culture foundation to support those in need. The foundation has since helped more than 1,900 people receive scholarships.
Getting credit for his decades-long efforts to elevate the nation’s pharmaceutical industrial prowess, he served as the chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) between 2004 and 2007. This was the first time that a pharmaceutical industry leader took the post at the business lobby group.
He did not stop fulfilling his social role there. Kang set up the so-called FKI One Percent Club while leading the organization, under which FKI member companies gave more than 1 percent of their ordinary incomes back to society.
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