Yonsei School of Business formally celebrated 100 years of business education on November 3 in a ceremony marked by the presence of alumni and international business educators that reflected both the school’s past and its ambitions for a future fixed firmly among the world’s elite business schools.

Among those present were Yonsei University President Kapyoung Jeong and former university presidents Ja Song and Changyoung Jeong; Kyungbae Seo, president of the alumni association of the College of Business and Economics; Jonghwa Lee, president of the Graduate School of Business alumni association; Hong-kee Lee, president of the AMP alumni association; and Byungheon Ko and Jungsoo Kim, both former presidents of the alumni association of the College of Business and Economics.

Also present were members of the YSB Global Advisory Board Jim Bemowsky, vice president of the Doosan Group; Jeonghoon Chang, president of Chong Kun Dang; and Hyojoon Kim, representative director president of BMW Group Korea.

Several eminent deans of foreign business schools were also present: Soumitra Dutta, dean of Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, who gave the keynote address; and deans from Washington University in St. Louis, Aalto, ESADE, ESSEC, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Universitas Indonesia.

In his greeting, Dean Donghoon Kim of YSB declared that the “Yonsei School of Business has firmly turned out graduates in center of Korea’s history going through 6.25 [a reference to the Korean War], industrialization and democratization, and they have led the historical developments in the society.” He announced that “as Missionary Underwood carried out his great conviction of teaching commercial science for the first time in the country in 1915, the Yonsei School of Business will prepare for the next 100 years from a long-term perspective.”

Kyungbae Seo, president of the alumni association of the College of Business & Economics, said “The proud history of Yonsei School of Business over past 100 years is a result of our endeavors and of alumni supporting and encouraging each other.” He urged alumni “not to rest on our laurels of the past and present and dream together for a new history.”

Yonsei University President Kapyoung Jeong said, “Yonsei Business School, founded originally as the College of Commerce of Chosun Christian College in 1915 led the globalization of Korea and became a paragon of entrepreneurship on the world stage.” He thanked the guests and hoped this ceremony served as a starting point for planning the next centennial celebration of Yonsei School of Business’s next centennial.

In his keynote address, Dean Soumitra Dutta of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University emphasized the effort required to overcome the limits to innovation so as to fulfill the role of a business school over the next 100 years. He complimented Korea on its status as a globally recognized country and concluded his speech by declaring his confidence in the ability of Yonsei’s leadership to expand worldwide.

In his address on “The Future of the Yonsei School of Business,” Dean Donghoon Kim summarized his vision of the next 100 years in ▲Start-ups and entrepreneurship development education ▲Korean corporate management research (K-management) ▲Convergence research.

He observed that the new business building accommodates space for students who have established business to move in and a design garage where product prototypes can be made. Lounges in various sections of the building will enhance student’s creativity by encouraging meetings and communication. Moreover, K-management research is already underway, having been launched two years ago.

The Yonsei School of Business has developed continuously over its centennial history under the inspiration of Missionary Underwood’s challenging and pioneer spirit. The ceremony served as a starting point for the next 100 years as well as a place for declaring the vision of for this next century in which the school will establish itself as a leading institution for business education and research in shaping the future through change and innovation.