Written by: Hank Morris and Derek Marsh  |  Posted on: November 29th, 2017

Sadly, two expatriate British businessmen in Seoul passed away recently.

Both Alan Plumb and Joe Day were long serving and well respected members of the British community and both had been honoured by Her Majesty for services to British business in Korea and to the British Chamber of Commerce in Korea. Both were well known at the British Embassy and a good friend to successive Ambassadors and their staff. Alan was at one time Chairman and Joe Day Vice Chairman of the BCCK.

Alan was a qualified chartered accountant. He went to Korea in the late 1970s and set up a joint venture merchant bank for the British bank Hill Samuel. Later, in the mid 1980s, after working in Singapore,  he joined Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong business and went back to Seoul to open up their business there. After leaving the banking world he ran Rolls Royce Korea (jet and marine engines) for fifteen years before setting up his own company, Abicomm, doing financial corporate work. His vast experience gave him a unique opportunity to help British and Korean companies.

Joe was awarded an engineering degree by the University of London and worked for Timex in the UK and Canada in the 1960s and 70s. Joe then worked in Hong Kong for an engineering company and made frequent trips to Seoul, finally settling there in the early 1980s. He became CEO of the Korea business of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi in the early 1990s. He retired in the late 1990s and set up his own company, Market Entry Services, to help foreign companies entering the Korean market. Joe married Yoonchung in the early 1990s and they had a daughter Elizabeth who was educated at the British School in Seoul.

Both Alan and Joe were prominent in the business and expatriate communities in Seoul and both will be long remembered with affection for their friendship; and, with respect, for their business achievements.

The BKS offers its condolences to Alan’s and Joe’s families.

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