Cho Won-tae

Cho was born in Seoul on 25 January 1976.[1] He is the son of former Hanjin Group chairman Cho Yang-ho, and the grandson of group founder Cho Choong-hoon. He has two sisters, Cho Hyun-min and Cho Hyun-ah (also known as Heather Cho).[2][3] He attended Marian High School in Massachusetts.[1] He went on to a two-year college in the United States, where he earned a grade-point average of 1.67 and received 33 course credits. He then returned to South Korea in 1998 to continue his studies at Inha University, which is run by a foundation established by the Hanjin Group. Inha University amended its entrance requirements so that Cho could transfer in as a third-year student.[4][5] He subsequently received an MBA from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. For his mandatory military service, he completed alternative service under the Skilled Industrial Personnel program.[6]

Cho joined Hanjin Group, the parent company of Korean Air, in 2003.[1] He became the vice-president of Hanjin Information Systems & Telecommunication, and then in 2004 was transferred to Korean Air, where he became the vice-manager of the planning team within the operations and strategy department.[7] He was promoted to head of the procurement department in January 2006, and then to assistant director in December of that year.[8][9] He received a further promotion in December 2007.[10] He later became the chief operating officer of Korean Air.[2] In the aftermath of his sister Heather's 2015 resignation over the nut rage incident, he took over management responsibility for other areas of Korean Air's business which she had previously overseen, including hotels and catering, in what was widely seen as a confirmation that he would inherit control of the company.[11] He was named the company's president in January 2017.[12] Cho concurrently held a number of other posts at Hanjin Group affiliates, including Hanjin Kal, Jin Air, Uniconverse, and the aircraft ground handling company Korea Airport Service, but resigned from those positions in 2017, in a move which Korean Air stated would improve management efficiency within the company.[13]

He became chairman and CEO of Hanjin and Korean Air in April 2019.[14] Cho was elected as a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Board of Governors at the 2019 IATA General Assembly, which was organized in Seoul in June.[15] He was also elected as chairman of the Skyteam Alliance board in June 2019.[16]

The 17 December 2020, Cho Won-tae received the "médaille d'honneur des affaires étrangères de la France" for his active participation for the repatriation of French citizen from South-Korea to France during the COVID-19 crises by using Korean Air.[17]

• Media related to Cho Won-tae at Wikimedia Commons