Two-thirds of Korea's fourth- and fifth-generation chaebol heirs enrolled abroad as undergraduates
CEO Score counts 46 of 49 fourth- and fifth-generation chaebol heirs as educated abroad, 33 of them starting as undergraduates. With the third generation already at 78.7%, anyone judging the next owners has to look at the age at which heirs leave Korea.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- CEO Score surveyed 350 owner-family members at 89 large business groups that have an identifiable controlling shareholder and whose members' education could be confirmed.
- Among the 34 founders in the sample, only two, or 5.9%, had studied overseas.
- Outside the United States, Tsinghua University and Keio University had the most chaebol family alumni, with four each.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint A cohort of 49 cannot support a forecast of how these heirs will govern, because three of them staying home would have cut the headline share to 87.8%.
- Who has to decide decision Investors reading an heir's schooling for a governance signal have to look at the age of departure, since the share abroad rose only 15.2 points from the third generation to the fourth and fifth.
- Who's exposed exposure Any strategic bias that foreign schooling brings into these groups would lean American, since the five most-attended overseas schools are all US universities with 85 family alumni between them.
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The four generational counts in CEO Score's survey (34, 112, 155 and 49) add to exactly 350, so every family member in the sample sits in one bucket [1][17]. The bucket behind the headline holds 14% of them [18]. Each heir in it moves the share by about two percentage points [19].
The larger move is in age. Foreign undergraduate enrolment covers 67.3% of the whole fourth- and fifth-generation cohort [21]. The generation of Jay Y. Lee and Euisun Chung took the older route. Lee studied East Asian history at Seoul National University, and Chung studied business administration at Korea University before an MBA at the University of San Francisco [9]. The survey report names two families that clustered at one foreign school, and in both the shared school was a graduate program. Four fourth-generation GS members, now chief executives of GS Entec, GS Futures, GS Caltex and GS Retail, all hold Stanford MBAs [10]. Five Doosan family members, including former chairman Park Yong-sung, took MBAs at New York University [11].
The direction was visible 15 years ago. The 2011 Chaebul.com survey found that 40.4% of the 146 family members it covered had attended a foreign university [14]. Its post-2000 entrants sat 6.9 points below today's fourth- and fifth-generation share [25].
For this cohort, the families have mostly stopped paying for a Korean first degree. At most 16 of the 49 could have taken one [22]. The home tallies (54 for Korea University, 50 for Seoul National, 35 for Yonsei) span every generation [8]. The foreign tallies also mix degree levels: Columbia's 22 include Lotte chairman Shin Dong-bin's MBA and CJ heir Lee Sun-ho's financial economics degree [12].
One reading is that foreign undergraduate schooling changes how heirs run their groups, in who sits on the board and where the group invests abroad. Another is that a degree is a credential, and decisions follow the family's control of the group whichever school issued it. A third is that 49 people are too few to tell those apart. Neither survey measures how any group is governed, so the governance question cannot be settled from them.
I think the credential reading fits the record better for now. Most of the third generation had already studied abroad [5]. If a foreign classroom changed how groups are run, the effect should already show among current leaders, or rather among the nearest comparison, the four GS chief executives who share a Stanford MBA [10]. The timing thesis would gain support if heirs with foreign first degrees run their units differently from heirs who went abroad only for graduate school, once both hold the same posts.
What to watch
- A later CEO Score count that reports the fifth generation separately from the fourth, so that each cohort has a sample of its own to compare.
- Chief executive appointments for heirs with foreign first degrees, such as Lee Sun-ho, head of CJ Group's future planning group and a Columbia financial economics graduate.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+8
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence60
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
CEO Score surveyed 350 members of owner families at 89 large business groups with an identifiable controlling shareholder whose educational backgrounds could be confirmed.
- [2]
Of the 49 fourth- and fifth-generation family members, 46, or 93.9%, had studied abroad.
- [3]
Among 34 first-generation founders, only two, or 5.9%, had studied overseas.
- [4]
In the second generation, 76 of 112, or 67.9%, had studied abroad.
- [5]
In the third generation, 122 of 155, or 78.7%, had studied abroad.
- [6]
Of the 46 fourth- and fifth-generation members who studied abroad, 33, or 71.7%, enrolled at a foreign university as undergraduates rather than only at the graduate level.
- [7]
Columbia was the most common overseas destination with 22 family members, followed by New York University with 18, Cornell with 16, Stanford with 15 and Harvard with 14.
- [8]
Among Korean universities, Korea University led with 54, followed by Seoul National University with 50 and Yonsei University with 35.
- [9]
For the generation of Jay Y. Lee and Euisun Chung, the standard route was a Korean undergraduate degree followed by graduate school abroad; Lee graduated from Seoul National University in East Asian history, and Chung studied business administration at Korea University before an MBA at the University of San Francisco.
- [10]
Four GS Group fourth-generation members, the chief executives of GS Entec, GS Futures, GS Caltex and GS Retail, all earned MBAs from Stanford.
- [11]
Five Doosan Group family members, including former Chairman Park Yong-sung and Doosan Enerbility Chairman Park Ji-won, took MBAs at New York University.
- [12]
Columbia's alumni from major business families include Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin, who earned an MBA, and CJ Group heir Lee Sun-ho, who studied financial economics.
- [13]
Lee Sun-ho, head of CJ Group's future planning group, majored in financial economics at Columbia University.
- [14]
A 2011 Chaebul.com survey of 146 family members aged 20 or older from the 30 largest groups found 59, or 40.4%, had attended a university abroad.
- [15]
In the 2011 survey, of the 23 family members who entered university after 2000, 20, or 87%, chose a foreign institution; the share was 32.3% for those in their 40s, 20% in their 50s and 13.2% for those 60 and older.
- [16]
Outside the United States, Tsinghua University in China and Keio University in Japan had the largest numbers of chaebol family alumni, with four each.
- [17]
The four generational counts add to 350, matching the full survey sample.
- [18]
The fourth- and fifth-generation cohort is 14% of the sample.
- [19]
Each person in the 49-member cohort moves its share by about 2 percentage points.
- [20]
The share studying abroad rose 15.2 points from the third generation to the fourth and fifth.
- [21]
Foreign undergraduate enrolment covers 67.3% of the full fourth- and fifth-generation cohort of 49.
- [22]
At most 16 of the 49 fourth- and fifth-generation members could have taken a first degree in Korea.
- [23]
The five most-attended overseas schools, all in the US, account for 85 family alumni.
- [24]
Had three of the 46 stayed in Korea, the fourth- and fifth-generation share abroad would be 87.8%.
- [25]
The 2011 survey's post-2000 entrants were 6.9 points below today's fourth- and fifth-generation share.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- en.sedaily.comNine in 10 Chaebol Heirs Now Study Abroad, Most Starting From Undergraduate Level
1 article · October 7, 2026
- koreajoongangdaily.comColumbia tops overseas schools for Korea’s chaebol families
1 article · October 6, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Family Business Succession
- International education