Dr. Peter Chung
Dr. Peter Chung: Chairman of Primacorp Ventures Inc
Dr. Peter Chung is the founder and Chairman of Primacorp Ventures Inc. in Surrey, BC. Primacorp invests in and manages a diverse business portfolio which includes Canada’s largest private post-secondary education group. Born in South Korea and educated in the states, Chung currently serves at the Great Commission Foundation and the Coram Deo Foundation as Chairman, and at Pepperdine University as a board member. Previously, he served at the boards with Western Trinity University and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Q. This July marks Canada’s 150th birthday. As a former recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, do you have any remarks?
I am honoured and humbled to be interviewed. Canada means a lot to me. I used to live in the U.S. and I had a real tough time early in the 90s. I came to Canada to start a business. There is no country like Canada that gives you opportunity to start something from a foreigner’s point of view. For this 150thbirthday, I am grateful and I really would like to be a productive member of the society to contribute something back to this nation of Canada.
“There is no other country that is more welcoming than Canada. We always should have a grateful heart.”
I actually went to the class reunion in the states. I asked him [a former classmate] what the difference between Canada and the U.S. from his point of view was. He thought about it for a while, and he goes, “You know, Canada is a lot more civilized.” That was the first thing how he described Canada. Canada has medical care for general public, and a lot lower tuition for schools. I thought about his comment, and it actually made sense.
Q. How did you decide to immigrate to Canada?
It wasn’t something that I planned. In 1990, I had a huge business reversal. I had fourteen businesses going in USA, and I lost thirteen of them. Back then, I used to live in L.A. Then, I moved to Seattle, and was there for three and a half years, just trying to figure out what to do. I had an option to go to Mexico or Canada. I thought, “Well, I speak Spanish…”
In the meanwhile, I came to see a friend of mine in Canada. This was back in 1994. I happened to pick up a newspaper, and I saw an article that read, “20 percent unemployment.” [I thought] maybe I could get into the education industry where I get to train people to get jobs out there. So, that is what caused me to come to Canada without understanding what was ahead of me. I didn’t know what the future was, but this is where I started from. It was totally by faith.
“I saw an article that read, ‘20 percent unemployment.’ [I thought] maybe I could get into the education industry where I get to train people to get jobs out there.”
Q. What is one memorable story you would like to share with us?
I lost my son Joseph. To me, that is the most memorable event in my life. I have five children, and my oldest son went to heaven on September 12th. In one sense, I still feel the loss. I actually went to see my son at the graveyard couple of days ago. It was painful, but at the same time God made me become more generous to others through this event.
If God has not given me a son like Joseph, I wouldn’t have known the other side of the society. Back then, I didn’t really pay attention to people with different abilities. My son was autistic, and he had a seizure disorder. He [God] got me to not only look at this life, but also the eternal life.
People in my age, we get closer to death; every day is one day closer to death. That’s how I look at it. Not in a negative sense. As a Christian, I think “Now I am going closer to the heaven each day.” I am basically living day by day, thanking God for each day.
I thank the Lord, although it is hard, for taking him home. Because through it, I get to talk to almost anybody including a president of a country. When I was in Argentina two Decembers before, I went to the South Pole, Antarctic, with my youngest son. I happened to stop by Argentina and have a dinner with a former president. Whether you are a president or a regular citizen, you talk about your children. You get to connect. Through my son, God gave me an opportunity to talk about Christ’s love and the eternal life. They pay attention because they have children too.
He [God] gives me opportunities to share with many people because of my son. When my son was born, we dedicated him as a missionary. We didn’t know how God would make him into a missionary, because he cannot speak properly nor did he connect with anybody. In hindsight, this was his plan. God planned all this, using Joseph as a missionary, to spread Christ’s love.
Q. Joe’s Table was founded in honour of your son Joseph, right?
Right. Actually, we couldn’t find him [Joseph] a job. That was the issue. So, we thought, “Well, Joseph is a very friendly person.” He loved to greet people. Every time he greeted people, he said, “Hi, how are you? My name is Joseph.” A stranger would think he is normal because he could say it perfectly. Then, he [Joesph] walks away after he says that. We thought maybe doing a coffee shop would be a good way of giving him a job and [he can be] a very good greeter.
But God took him home in the process of setting this up. My wife and I really struggled, and said, “What do we do. Do we just stop?” We prayed about it, and my wife Stephanie came back and said, “I had a dream about my son Joseph.” Joseph came to see her in a dream. She was convinced at that time that Joseph was in heaven. She said, “We should adopt all the people with autism and move on with this project.” This is how we got to continue the Joe’s Table concept.
He loved to greet people. Every time he greeted people, he said, “Hi, how are you? My name is Joseph.”
We have three [locations] going at this point. This year, we will put one at the Billy Graham’s library in North Carolina. I think it will be a good testament to a lot of people who have children with different abilities. I hope this will be a good inspiration to many people who come to drink coffee there.
Q. Could you tell us about Amenida seniors’ community?
It is a senior care home. We have approximately 138 residents there – about 40 percent Koreans and 60 percent mainstream Canadians. The Korean Canadian community in Vancouver wanted to build a senior care home. I was quite involved in it, and I soon realized that trying to raise funds through donation would not work.
In the meanwhile, I ran a school and our nursing students went to Amenida care home for their practicum. One day the then-owner approached me and asked me whether I would like to buy Amenida. It should have been full, but because they did not meet government regulations, their occupancy went down to about 20 percent.
I offered my service to the Korean Canadian community because there are three things that we found: food, language and culture. As you get old, language becomes very important, but the most important thing is food. We serve western breakfasts, but we serve lunch and dinner with Korean and Canadian food. I think it is the only kind in Canada.
It was not something that I planned. God gave me this opportunity to do it. I think we got 56 Koreans living there. They are so grateful that we did this. Where can you go to get Korean food and friends, and Korean staff to help you out? We have three chefs – one from Gyeongsang province, one from Jeolla province and the other from North Korea. They have different cooking styles, so they rotate. They [the residents] get to try Gyeongsang cuisine today, and tomorrow Jeolla, and the next day North Korean.
“As you get old, language becomes very important, but the most important thing is food.”
I am thankful to the Lord for giving me the opportunity for this. Every time I go there, so many people come to us. They appreciate what we have done, and bow at 90 degrees to thank me. It is kind of embarrassing for me, but I could tell that they are happy. By the way, my in-laws are living there too. That is a testament of the quality.
Q. What is your vision for Joe’s Table and for Amenida senior care home?
For Joe’s Table, we want to do any many as we can. The quality of coffee is very important for any coffee shop. We want people to come because the coffee tastes good. I don’t want people to come because of sympathy. It will not last for long. So, we want to have a coffee shop that sustains. For the fourth one, we are going to do it in the Billy Graham library. We will see what happens.
“We want people to come because the coffee tastes good. I don’t want people to come because of sympathy.”
For Amenida, we would like to do many of it. We really enjoy doing this because people seem to be very very happy. Our mission statement is “changing lives through education, service and care.” As I get older, I get more love towards older people. Maybe because I am getting old. I do appreciate what they have done. We would like to do 40 of them in the future as we grow the business.
Canada is a multicultural society. We did one with Korean Canadians, but we would like to do one with maybe Iranians, Vietnamese and other minorities. As you get older, it is tough to go to old Canadian type of care homes, and try to get the best out of it. It is tough. So, that is a niche that I am looking at.
We [Primacorp] are the largest provider of a private post-secondary education in Canada. We have 39 campuses in operation in five provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. We have about 15,000 student enrollments per year, and we would like to push that to 24,000 enrollments per year in five years. People ask me why. It is because our mission is to change people’s lives. The more [students] we have, the more lives we can change.
Q. Do you have anything you would like to share with the next generation of Korean Canadians?
I look at this in two ways. One is a philosophical way. I think anybody including Korean Canadians wants to be successful. They say they think success brings happiness. At the end of the day, everyone wants to be happy. But to me, I always think of what King Solomon says. On Ecclesiastes 3:12, he says there is nothing better for a man than to do good in his lifetime. So to me, happiness comes from doing good for others. That is where success should be based on.
“If you know you are contributing to Canada, whether as are a dishwasher or a doctor, it doesn’t matter as long as you keep in mind that God has given you the talents.”
As Korean Canadians, we have to always have a thankful heart to Canada. You all came from Korea or somewhere else to live in Canada. There is no other country that is more welcoming than Canada. We always should have a grateful heart.
Secondly, I believe God has given us different talents to all of us. Some people are good at philanthropic work, and some people are good at other specific areas. Whatever God has given us, we just maximize it and give it back to the society.
Korean parents tend to wish for their children to take up professions like lawyers or doctors. I think they look at their background and say, “Well, to have a stable and successful life, it’s good to have that type of profession.”
But to me, everybody is different. If you do what you like to do in this age, nobody goes hungry. Enjoy what you do. If you know you are contributing to Canada, whether as a dishwasher or a doctor, it doesn’t matter as long as you keep in mind that God has given you the talents. For example, probably the only thing that my son Joseph could have done was greeting people as they walk into the coffee shop and make them happy. He would have been happy with what he does while contributing to society. Everybody has different talents and everybody has different strengths that can make other people happy. And I think that’s how you become a productive member of the society in Canada. So always keep that in mind, and that will bring you happiness.
Q. Who inspires you?
I became a Christian when I was a freshman at UCLA. One that inspires me is Jesus Christ because he is the guy who showed me the eternal life and gave me a reason to live – not only for the life on this earth, but also for the eternal life.
The commandments he gave us are really inspiring to me. So, if there is anyone who does not know what to do with his or her future, I think they should look to Jesus. For me, when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” I had to really wrestle whether he really is the truth or just a phony. I found that he is real. So, that is the best advice I can give to anybody. Having said that, I don’t want people to think of me as a holy man either. I am a sinner like anybody else is. But by the grace of God, I am here.
Interview/Transcription by Caleb Park