SK Chemicals vice chairman and CEO Kim Chang-geun has won the Forbes CEO Award, the company announced on Tuesday.

Hosted by Forbes Korea and supported by the Ministry of Commerce, the Forbes CEO Award selects CEOs who develop creative corporal culture with strong leadership and social responsibility.

Forbes acknowledged Kim’s leading role in corporate restructuring and aggressive overseas operations based on communicative skills, SK Chemicals said. Kim became the vice chair of the nation’s leading pharmaceutical company in 2005. 

The Forbes award winner has contributed greatly to the consolidation of unity between employers and workers emphasizing “immediacy, transparency, and trustworthiness,” and joining the labor-management round table, the company said.

Under his leadership, SK Chemicals announced a declaration of harmony between labor and management, since the two have not had a single row for 42 years, SK Chemicals said.

“Communication among the group’s components is what counts as most important to establish a common ground for new changes,” Kim said at the award ceremony. “I see the trust and action-taking as more significant than a number of communicative programs.”

The company’s buildings also point to Kim’s pro-communication style. The Eco-lab at SK Chemical headquarters has conference rooms, office rooms and a lobby that were built with designs encouraging mutual communication, a spokesman of SK Chemicals said.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)