The local Korean-American media came out in force last week, eager to get a few minutes with Nara Bank’s elusive 81-year-old chairman, Chong-Moon Lee. The entrepreneur and philanthropist, who is highly respected in the Korean-American community, was scheduled to headline a New Year’s celebration at the Mid-Wilshire branch of the Koreatown bank.
Lee, who is based in the Bay Area but has a heavy influence on the direction of Nara, does not often speak to the media, and as one reporter in attendance said, “We really want to hear what he has to say.” Reporters have even been known to camp outside board meetings to talk with Lee.
Nara’s chief executive, Min Kim, kicked off the fete, saying to a roomful of employees, executives and media members, “2010 will be a very, very special year for all of us.”
But hopes were dashed after she announced, somewhat disappointedly, that Lee could not make it.
Sky-High Inspiration
When people need to get away to think, they often take a walk or go for a drive. Dan Katz goes flying.
Katz, the president of ad agency LA Ads in Northridge, gets his best ideas while tooling through the clouds.
“When you fly, you have to be very focused. It’s such a consciousness shift that it actually frees up the subconscious part of your mind to do its work,” Katz explained.
He believes his in-flight insights are similar to the great ideas that some people get in the middle of the night. Katz keeps a notepad in the plane and writes down his thoughts as soon as he lands.
Once he was struggling to come up with a magazine ad for a client in the cremation business. While flying over the desert, he suddenly wondered what would happen if he died in a plane accident at that moment. What would his wife do?
His finished ad showed a grave and a thought bubble coming up from the ground with the caption “I really wanted to be cremated.”
“It’s still one of my favorite ads, and it really pulled people in the door for my client,” Katz said.
Staff reporters Richard Clough and Joel Russell contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
