Lee Ju-yong, honorary chairman of KCC Information & Communications and SysOne, who laid the cornerstone of Korea's information technology (IT) industry, received the nation's most prestigious management award from the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration.
According to the Korean Academic Society of Business Administration on the 18th, the honorary chairman won the 2026 Korea Management Grand Prize at an awards ceremony held on the 15th. The society said it highly valued his achievements in practicing an entrepreneurial spirit that encompasses national industrial development through technological innovation and sincere social giveback.
He is regarded as a pioneer in Korea's IT history. After becoming the first Korean to join IBM's U.S. headquarters in 1960, he served as the first head of the IBM Korea office and the first director of the Korea Productivity Center Electronic Computing Center, laying the groundwork for the introduction of information technology in Korea.
In 1967, he led the introduction of the nation's first high-performance computer, the "FACOM-222," and in the same year founded the Korea Electronic Computing Center (now KCC Information & Communications), spearheading the training of computing talent for public institutions.
Thereafter, the foundations of Korea's digital administration were established under his guidance. The honorary chairman led the modernization of core national systems, including building the resident registration computerization system, real-time online computerization for inbound passengers at Gimpo Airport customs, computerization of national referendum ballot counting, and development of the rail ticket computer-based sales system. He also set the first record for exporting domestically developed software by exporting software to the State Railway of Thailand.
Another factor cited for his selection was his practice of "noblesse oblige," returning the performance of corporations to social asset.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the company's founding in 2017, he pledged social giveback worth 60 billion won and has since donated more than 92 billion won in total to education, health care, culture and welfare.
He established the Jongha Scholarship Foundation, the Future and Software Foundation, and the WoonDang Nanum Foundation, taking the lead in nurturing future talent and bridging the digital divide, and he actively invested in the community, including donating to the Seoul National University Hospital development fund and rebuilding the Ulsan Jongha Innovation Center.
Academia and industry said the award is significant in that it reexamined the footsteps of a first-generation entrepreneur who sowed the seeds of advanced technology in the early days of industrialization and dedicated more than half a century in the era of digital transformation.
At the awards ceremony, his wife, Choi Gi-ju, accepted the award on behalf of the honorary chairman. Choi said, "Thank you for meaningfully honoring the journey of the honorary chairman, who devoted a lifetime to the development of Korea's information and communications industry and national computerization," adding, "I would like to share this honor with our executives and employees and with everyone who has worked for the advancement of Korea's industry."
Meanwhile, the honorary chairman received the Order of Industrial Service Merit, Bronze Tower, in 1987 and the Order of Industrial Service Merit, Gold Tower, in 2016 for contributions to national industrial development.