Special Lecture by Kim Sung-Joo, CEO of Sungjoo Group. Ms. Kim Sung-Joo, one of the "100 Next Generation Leaders" chosen by the Davos World Economic Forum, gave a lecture on the “Vision of Young Generation in the 21st Century” at Yonsei-Samsung Library on June 2. She made speeches on her life and global leadership. Kim’s unique career started in her university days at Yonsei. Being born as the youngest child of the owner of Daesung Group, she could have followed the easy path. Her parents suggested she marry right after her graduation from Yonsei University in 1979. Kim, however, did not follow the suggestion and went instead to America. She began working at Bloomingdale's as a sales clerk, on a modest salary of 1,500 Dollars a month. There she went through various discrimination and ignorance; she recollected that it would not have been possible for her to achieve what she had done had she failed to overcome the difficulties in those days. In 1990, Kim established Sungjoo Inc. after coming back to Korea, with three hundred million Korean Won she borrowed from her father. The company traded products of luxury brands such as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. It soon obtained license as the official distributor of numerous luxury brands. The company grew 30~50% each year, and had about 100 branches nationwide before the financial crisis in 1997. The crisis caused a loss of 30 billion Won, but Gucci proposed to support the company with 27 billion Won, trusting Sungjoo's transparent management and strong decision making. The company took MCM, a German leather goods company in 2005, and led the brand to earn 220 billion Won per annum in 4 years, while opening up its new branches around the world. During the lecture, she also emphasized that it is a virtue of young leaders in the 21st century to demonstrate their talents to help people in need and return their talent to the society. She said to Yonsei students, “You have to promote morale and honesty, and the ability to understand global culture.”