On July 27, 2006, a ceremony took place to award the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur at the French embassy, Seoul, Korea. The recipient of this highest decoration was Suh Kyung-bae, the CEO and Chairman of AMOREPACIFIC. The award was in recognition of his contribution to promoting economic cooperation and friendly relationship between Korea and France by making a global success of Lolita Lempicka, the first perfume made by AMOREPACIFIC and the release of its second perfume, L.

After receiving the medal, Suh Kyung-bae looked at the old passport of the late founder Suh Sung-whan, who passed away in 2003. The passport was used for his first visit to France in 1960.

Korean passport no.22153

The old passport had a picture of a young 36-year old businessman looking composed yet showing a determined look in his piercing eyes. On the back, it had a visa issued by the French embassy in 1960, as well as the records of stops he made on his journey such as Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand.
With deep respect and love for his late father who had been fully devoted to what he determined to do, Suh Kyung-bae dedicated the honor of Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur to him.
Though he put much effort into building up the laboratory and recruiting talented researchers, the quality problem that faced Korean cosmetics weighed heavily on the mind of Suh Sung-whan. For him, the only solution was to learn advanced technologies from foreign countries. He believed that the only way to become an early mover is to adopt new advanced technology and make sure the technology is fully used to upgrade the overall quality of Korean cosmetics.
One day, Suh Sung-whan set off on a 40-day tour of Europe at the invitation of a French cosmetics company, Coty which was AMOREPACIFIC's technology partner. That year was 1960, some seven years after the end of the Korean War He made an inspection tour around France and other two European countries during the trip. At that time, Korea's per capita income was as low as USD 85. Poverty was everywhere, in every town of Korea, but nothing could stand in the way of ambitious Suh Sung-whan, whose passion and dream was going global.

Setting off from Gimpo Airport, he had to make transits in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, Jordan and Italy to finally arrive at Paris. Coty was located on the banks of the River Seine in Paris and it was totally a new world to Suh Sung-whan. He could not take his eyes off the modern automated production facilities equipped with the latest systems delivering an endless stream of world-class quality cosmetics and dozens of storage tanks. Everything there stirred up his envy.

After Paris, Suh Sung-whan visited Grasse, a small city in southern France, which is famous as the home of perfume with small distilleries, soap factories and perfume stores in huddles along every street. He recalled the old memories of his mother pressing camellia oil while looking into the process of squeezing undiluted essence from petals and dry grass, as well as all kinds of instruments used for making perfume.

And there he saw a floral farm boasting arrays of purple lavender and colorful flowers. It made him realize that cultivating flowers could contribute to the development of the wider economy and culture, and the protection of environment as well. He wrote down his realization in his mind, which later became realized into a one million pyeong (3,305,785 square meters) tea garden in Jeju Island, Korea.

* This column is extracted from the critical biography of the founder Cosmetics would still be my purpose, even in another life.