About S.H. Baik of Young An Hat Company

Baik Sung-hak was born on April 18, 1940, in Heilongjiang province, China.  The Baik household was among the wealthiest in the Manchuria region.  Baik lost his father to disease by the age of five and the family fortune was lost soon after due to war and the purge of capitalist and landlords in China.  The Baik family sold their property and moved through Youncheon, North Korea and on to Wonsan in South Hamgyong province in 1946. 

After moving to North Korea another major event turned Baik Sung-hak's life upside down.  The Korean War of June 25, 1950 broke out which left the Baik family needing to seek refuge.  As fate would have it, the young Sung-hak was at the Galma Port to bid farewell to his Sunday school teacher on an evacuating ship when he was trapped on the boat and could not escape.  The son of a once renowned family found himself a war orphan.

By the age of 10, the young Baik found himself working odd jobs from sweeping restaurant floors and polishing shoes.  Baik ended up as a houseboy at a U.S. military base when an unfortunate incident happened, a bomb struck the young Sung-hak which caused his face and entire body to catch fire.  An American soldier saw what was happening and wrapped him up in a coat and helped him on a helicopter to a U.S. field hospital.  This U.S. soldier named Billy later inspired Baik to found "Baik's Village" and to help the less fortunate.

After the war, Baik found himself working in a hat factory in Seoul.  The young Sung-hak started out by sweeping floors and working up to 18 hours a day.  It didn't take long for Baik to catch the eye of the factor owner.  Soon after he was promoted to the mid-level ranks and put in charge of two shops and one factory.  After learning the hat trade, Baik used his entire savings he had earned from working in the factories to purchase 70 felt bodies and start his new company the "Young An Hat Boutique".  He took the name "Young An" from the shop his grandfather had in Manchuria.

S.H. Baik announcing the scholarship at the annual dinner in 2009.

This was the humble start of what would later become "Young An Hat Company", which would total $2 billion in annual sales.  By the 1960's, Baik was preparing his company to become an international leader in hats, and started exporting to the U.S. and Japan.  By the 1970's, Young An expanded its production facilities and found its footing in other foreign markets.  The Young An Hat Company also opened manufacturing in America, Costa Rica and other markets and established a 30-percent market share on the production of headwear. 

In 1989, after 37 years, Baik was reunited with the U.S. soldier who had saved his life during the Korean War.  The generosity demonstrated by Billy (who was actually David Beattie) years earlier taught Baik the meaning of love and compassion.  It was this love and compassion that moved Baik to give much of Young An's business profits to charities. 

 On his way to becoming a global leader in hats, Baik Sung-hak was the role model for all others with his work ethic, his outside-the-box thinking, and charismatic leadership.  In the early 1990's Baik brought his three sons into the family business and got their feet into management early.   This approach has allowed the Young An company to keeps its traditions alive, while preserving the company's long-term sustainability.  Today, Young An remains a family-run business despite being a giant company.  It is these values that led Baik Sung-hak to establish a scholarship fund for you aspiring entrepreneurs in headwear.