The minimalist decor in his office looks like it belongs to an art director: A dining table doubles as a desk, and paintings, papers and pens are strewn everywhere. Suit and tie? “Too stuffy,” says Park. So how does the head of Pantech, the country’s third-largest cellular handset maker, like to spend those rare evenings when he’s not traveling or meeting clients? “I am into karaoke, nightclubs, dancing and drinking. Life is what you make of it. I work hard, and I play hard.”
Park, 44, doesn’t just distinguish himself on lifestyle issues. After creating a small paging-device maker less than a decade ago, he used foreign venture capital to build his company into one of the ten biggest cellular handset manufacturers in the world. With nearly $500 million in annual sales, Pantech is a worthy rival to local giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. And Park has lately become an emblem of the “new Korea” in the local media: a successful entrepreneur rather than someone who inherited a conglomerate.
Park has branched out into China, where he’s become the No. 3 handset maker by supplying products for mainland brand names like Legend and Ningo Bird as well as for Motorola. “Our niche is in making affordable, trendy handsets that appeal to people in developing countries like China,” he says.
Park is getting ready to list another holding, Pantech & Curitel, on the Seoul exchange this fall. He bought the ailing company, also a big handset maker, in 2001 and has returned it to profitability. A new listing, however, means more headaches for Park, who’s married and has two children. “It’s difficult to party all night and then come back to the office next morning and meet with investment bankers and analysts who are always asking serious questions.”
