KAIST

< Chairman Dong-Bin Shin (left) receives the degree certificate from KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee (right). >

KAIST announced on the 26th that it awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration to Lotte Group Chairman Dong-Bin Shin at its main campus in Daejeon on the 25th.

Chairman Dong-Bin Shin, who received the Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration, is a leading South Korean business figure who has led sustainable corporate growth amidst a rapidly changing global business environment. As Chairman of Lotte Group, Chairman Shin has stably sophisticated the group's traditional business foundations centered on retail and consumer goods, while concentrating strategic capabilities on core areas that will determine future competitiveness, such as chemicals/materials, eco-friendly energy, and digital transformation.

KAIST stated, “Chairman Dong-Bin Shin has practiced responsible management by taking Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) as a core pillar of management under the recognition that corporate performance cannot be separated from society,” and added, “We awarded the honorary doctorate in high evaluation of his efforts in materializing industrial transformation and social value creation based on science and technology through systems and execution.” Furthermore, the importance of the process in which the results of technological innovation are practically diffused to society and users, which has been reflected in his management strategy, was also cited as a background for this conferment decision.

Chairman Dong-Bin Shin has contributed to the creation of science and technology research infrastructure and the establishment of a foundation for convergence research through industry-academia cooperation with KAIST. Lotte Group donated 14 billion KRW in development funds to KAIST to establish the ‘LOTTE–KAIST R&D Center’ and the ‘LOTTE–KAIST Design Center,’ thereby laying the groundwork for multidisciplinary convergence research in core areas required by future society, such as carbon neutrality technology, bio-sustainability, energy/materials, and healthcare.

In particular, this cooperation was evaluated as an execution-oriented industry-academia cooperation model that links research infrastructure construction, medium-to-long-term research agenda setting, and the diffusion of research results into industry and society. Along with technical research centered on the R&D Center, the Design Center has played a role in expanding the social usability of technological research by focusing on the process through which research results are delivered to society and users. This has contributed to strengthening KAIST’s research competitiveness and establishing a virtuous cycle in which research results spread as social values.

Chairman Dong-Bin Shin said, "The convergence of technology and management through industry-academia cooperation is no longer a choice but a survival strategy," and added, "I hope that the journey of Lotte and KAIST, as innovation partners designing the future together, will lead to innovations that change the world for the better."

< Chairman Dong-Bin Shin delivering a speech after receiving his Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration. >

President Kwang Hyung Lee stated, “Chairman Dong-Bin Shin is a person who has presented a new role for companies through responsible management that connects science and technology, industry, and social value,” and added, “We awarded the Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration in high recognition of his contribution to expanding research infrastructure and building a foundation for convergence research through industry-academia cooperation with KAIST.”