Cho Jung-ho

Cho Jung-ho is a South Korean businessman and chairman of Meritz Financial Group. 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.

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. 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.
He worked at Korean Air as a manager in its European headquarters, then moved to Hanil Securities. In 1989, he became a director at Hanjin Investment & Securities. In 2005, he broke the company off of Hanjin and renamed it Meritz, and became its chairman. The company reportedly rapidly grew thereafter.
He has announced that he had no intention of passing the company onto his children.