[COVER STORY] “Crown Prince” Chung Ki-sun Finally Wears the Crown

정기선 HD현대 회장[사진=HD현대]

[CEONEWS = Chief Reporter Jaehoon Lee] October 2025 — At last, Hyundai’s third-generation scion Chung Ki-sun (43) has ascended to the chairmanship of HD Hyundai. It has been exactly 15 years and 9 months since he joined the company in January 2009 as a deputy manager in the finance division. The eldest son of Chung Mong-joon, chairman of the Asan Foundation and the largest shareholder of HD Hyundai (26.6%), and the grandson of the late Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai’s legendary founder, his promotion was long foreseen — but his path has been anything but easy.

The launch of the “HD Hyundai 3.0” era has split Korea’s business community squarely in two: some hail him as a “prepared innovator” with a clear digital-and-energy vision; others dismiss it as a “coronation of the crown prince inside his father’s fortress.”

The market, however, is merciless. Now, Chung Ki-sun must shed the labels “grandson of Chung Ju-yung” and “son of Chung Mong-joon.” From here on, only numbers and results will define his worth. CEONEWS dissects, with facts and data, the fifteen-year trajectory of the man now steering the giant vessel called HD Hyundai 3.0.

■ “Royal Elite” Playbook — Fifteen Years of Succession Schooling

권오갑 회장과 정기선 수석부회장이 정주영 추모 24주기 기념에서 묵념하고 있다,[사진=HD현대]

Chung Ki-sun’s résumé reads like a textbook example of the Hyundai royal elite. Born in 1982, his very birth was newsworthy: the eldest son of Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung’s sixth son, Chung Mong-joon. From day one, he was marked as successor.

After graduating from Daeil Foreign Language High School and earning a degree in economics from Yonsei University (Class of ’97), he fulfilled his ROTC military service. His first career step was unexpected — journalism. In 2005 he worked for a year as a reporter at The Dong-A Ilbo. The business community saw it as training in political sense and communication skills for future management.

He then earned an MBA from Stanford University and, in January 2009, joined Hyundai Heavy Industries’ finance team as a deputy manager — the official start of his succession curriculum. Yet after only one year he abruptly resigned to join the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Critics accused him of abandoning ship during the shipbuilding downturn, but HD Hyundai explained it as a move to learn advanced management practices abroad.

He returned in 2013 as Senior Manager of Corporate Planning, and from there his rise became meteoric:
2014 Executive Director → 2015 Managing Director → 2017 Executive Vice President → 2021 President → 2025 Chairman at age 43.

The entire journey took just 15 years — a speed impossible without royal lineage, given that an average executive promotion takes 20 years or more.

During this period, Chung expanded his control over the group by simultaneously heading its ship sales division and future strategy office, striving to establish his own managerial identity beyond his father’s shadow.

■ A Bitter Lesson in Failure — The Sunken “Big Deal”

HD현대 가계도(창업주 정주영, 정몽준 아산사회복지재단 이사장, 정기선 HD현대 수석부회장)

Chung’s managerial skills were first tested publicly in the 2019 bid to acquire Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME, now Hanwha Ocean). As Executive Vice President overseeing group strategy, he spearheaded the mega-deal under the banner of “creating a global super-gap in Korean shipbuilding.”

Had it succeeded, he would have cemented his legitimacy as heir. But in January 2022 the European Commission rejected the merger, ruling that it would monopolize the LNG carrier market.

Three years of work evaporated overnight — his first and most painful public failure. Analysts called it a failure to read the mood of global regulators, casting doubt on his leadership. For Chung, it was a harsh initiation, revealing how heavy the “crown prince” title could be.

■ Redemption Through M&A and New Growth Engines

사우디아라비아 칼리드 알팔레 투자부 장관과 만나 사업협력에 관해 환담하는 정기선 부회장.

 

Instead of retreating after the DSME fiasco, Chung struck back with a bold counter-move. Ironically, just before the collapse, he had already completed another big deal: the 2021 acquisition of Doosan Infracore (now HD Hyundai Infracore) — a diversification play beyond shipbuilding.

The result was a triumph. Once loss-making, HD Hyundai Infracore posted record 2023 earnings of ₩4.75 trillion in revenue and ₩418.3 billion in operating profit, and remained a solid cash cow in 2024. He erased the stigma of a failed M&A with the numbers of a successful one.

To transform Hyundai’s heavy-industry image, he chose the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) as his global stage, personally presenting the group’s future vision in fluent English each January in Las Vegas.

His first card was Digital Transformation (DT).

“We must evolve from a company that builds ships to one that sells data about ships,”
he declared.

Partnering with Palantir Technologies, he launched the FOS (Future of Shipyard) project in 2022 to embed a full-scale data platform across production. This was not mere process improvement but the birth of a smart shipyard.

He also founded Avikus, an autonomous-navigation subsidiary, which achieved the world’s first trans-Pacific voyage by a large autonomous vessel — a milestone signaling the shift from “Chung Mong-joon’s shipbuilder” to “Chung Ki-sun’s tech company.”

His second major initiative was Hydrogen (H₂). Re-defining HD Hyundai as an energy enterprise, he launched the “H₂ Dream” project to build a full hydrogen value chain — from production to transport to utilization.

The blueprint: produce green hydrogen offshore; ship it via HD Hyundai-built ammonia carriers; power hydrogen-engine excavators from HD Hyundai Infracore on land; and refuel them at hydrogen stations installed by HD Hyundai Electric.

If Chung Ju-yung’s dream was “Shipbuilding Nation” and Chung Mong-joon’s was “Maritime Power,” Chung Ki-sun’s is “Clean Energy Dominance.”

■ HD Hyundai 3.0 — The True Test Begins Now

정기선 HD현대 수석부회장

With his October 2025 appointment as chairman, three massive waves lie ahead:

Proving Competence Through Numbers
Hydrogen, AI, and autonomous shipping are long-term bets, not immediate profit engines. If his grand vision fails to translate into solid results, HD Hyundai 3.0 could collapse into empty slogans.

Navigating a Turbulent World
U.S.–China rivalry, global economic slowdown, and volatile energy transitions form the toughest external headwinds. Once the shipbuilding “super-cycle” ends, can his new businesses sustain the group?

Shedding the Inheritance Label
No matter how successful he becomes, critics will attribute it to his father’s power. The only way to erase that stigma is to emulate his grandfather — to pioneer an uncharted path and achieve overwhelming success.

여직원들과 환담을 나누는 정기선 HD현대 부회장

The colossal ship HD Hyundai 3.0 has just set sail under its new captain. Having paid dearly for the DSME failure, Chung has charted a new course powered by hydrogen and AI.

Will he transcend the raw ambition of Chung Ju-yung and the intellect of Chung Mong-joon to create a Hyundai of his own?

The market now watches in silence: will he be remembered merely as “the founder’s grandson,” or as “the genuine innovator who ushered in the HD Hyundai 3.0 era”?

For Chung Ki-sun, true leadership begins now. The market’s countdown has already begun.