Gim Seong-gon, founder and chairman of CS Wind.
This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Korea’s Richest 2021. See the full list here.
Gim Seong-gon, 67, is the first person to join the ranks of Korea’s 50 Richest based on a fortune in green energy. He debuts on the ranking after shares in his CS Wind, a maker of wind towers, quintupled over the past year. The rise has propelled Gim, who with his family owns a majority of the company, to No. 44 on the list with a net worth of $1.1 billion.
Investors are bullish on CS Wind as clean energy, such as wind power, gains in worldwide popularity. South Korea, for its part, announced in February a $43 billion plan to build the world’s largest wind power plant by 2030. Last year CS Wind saw sales of wind towers rise 21% to $821 million, thanks to clients such as General Electric and Siemens Gamesa.
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The son of a farmer, Gim got his start brokering deals for a local construction outfit. He later set up his own construction company before starting CS Wind in 1988. Twenty years later, Goldman Sachs invested $40 million in the company, allowing it to expand.
Turbine towers have been set up at an offshore wind farm in waters some 10 kilometres off Gochang in … [+]
