Shin Young-ja, chair of the Lotte Foundation and the eldest daughter of the late Shin Kyuk-ho, Lotte Group's founder and honorary chairman, died on the 21st. She was 85.
Born in 1942 to Shin, the honorary chairman, and his first wife, Noh Sun-hwa, Shin was a daughter whom Shin meticulously cared for. After Shin left for Japan and her mother died when she was young, Shin was raised by her grandfather. She was not able to meet her father until after she turned 10. Shin is said to have felt deep affection over this.
She was a female executive who was deeply involved in the early growth of the group's retail business. Joining Lotte Shopping in 1973, she took an active, on-site management role with the late Shin for about 40 years until stepping down as Lotte Shopping president in 2012.
From the time Lotte Department Store was established, she served as director in charge of sales and as managing director, executive vice president of Hotel Lotte, chief operating officer of Lotte Department Store, president of Lotte Duty Free, and president of Lotte Shopping. When the Avenue L luxury hall opened in 2005, she acted as general director and contributed to the upscale positioning of Lotte Department Store.
The retail industry credits her with enabling Lotte Shopping to successfully launch Korea's first duty-free store and helping Hotel Lotte and Lotte Department Store grow to the top of the industry. A Lotte Shopping official said, "In particular, the duty-free business was an area where she made key management decisions, and this contributed to its growth."
After stepping down as Lotte Shopping president, she oversaw the Lotte Welfare Foundation, the Lotte Scholarship Foundation, and the Lotte Samdong Welfare Foundation. It is known that she could not avoid the influence of a family tradition in which an old-fashioned preference for males and firstborn sons was unavoidably strong.
The year 2012, when she resigned as president, was three years before a management control dispute erupted within Lotte Group. It was when the dynamic between brothers Shin Dong-ju and Shin Dong-bin was being cemented. A Lotte Department Store official said, "She was an excellent female executive with strong business acumen."
Her first daughter, Jang Hye-seon, chair of the Lotte Scholarship Foundation, and her second daughter, Jang Sun-yoon, head of the Americas strategy division at Hotel Lotte, are involved in management. Chair Jang Hye-seon took charge of the Lotte Scholarship Foundation and the Lotte Samdong Welfare Foundation in 2023. Division head Jang Sun-yoon is focusing on establishing Hotel Lotte's brands in the U.S. market, including the New York Palace Hotel.
She sequentially disposed of equity in Lotte Corporation, Lotte Shopping, Lotte Confectionery, and Lotte Chilsung Beverage. Last year, she fully divested her stakes in Lotte Group's listed companies. The background for the equity sales was to pay an inheritance tax of about 450 billion won.
Her funeral will be held for three days at the Sinchon Severance Hospital funeral hall in Seoul as a "Lotte Foundation funeral," with Chair Jang Hye-seon serving as chief mourner. The burial site is Hannam Park Cemetery in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.