On the 25th, the Hana Financial Group Executive Recommendation Committee (Chuwi Lim) held a meeting and recommended candidates for CEOs of key affiliates. Four outside directors, including Chairman Kim Jeong-tae, Chairman Yoon Seong-bok, Ewha Womans University professor Cha Eun-young, and Dongguk University professor Yang Dong-hoon, participated in Lim Chu-wi.
The most striking is Park Seong-ho, vice president of Digital Retail Group, who was recommended as a candidate for the president of Hana Bank. There is a reaction that the current chief executive Ji Seong-gyu broke the initial expectation that the reappointment would be alright and was’surprised’. On the 15th, when the Hana Financial Chairman Candidate Recommendation Committee selected Vice-Chief Park as one of the four final candidates for the chairman, it was suggested that he was selected as the next president.
Lim Chu-wi explained that Vice President Park highly appreciated his experience as CEO at Hana Bank’s Indonesian subsidiary and Hana Financial TI.
Hana Financial Investment also replaced the CEO. Lim Chu-wi appointed Lee Eun-hyung, vice chairman of Hana Financial Group, as the representative of Hana Geumtu. In the case of current CEO Lee Jin-guk, the fact that the Financial Supervisory Service requested an investigation to the prosecution on charges such as pre-sale of stocks seems to have served as the reason for the replacement.
The financial sector is paying attention to how Hana Financial’s succession structure will change in the future. As Chairman Kim will be reappointed for the next year, it is necessary to foster and discover a group of candidates for the next president. This is why interest is also focused on the future advances of President Ji Haeng and Lee Jin-guk.
Hana Financial Group is currently operating under a system of three vice chairmen. In March last year, CEO Lee Jin-guk and Hana Geumtu CEO Lee Eun-hyeong were elected as vice-chairmen, and they are leading the group management together with vice-chairman Ham Young-ju.
Some are also predicting that after completing the term of the chairman, Ji will be able to join the holding company as vice chairman. As it was excluded from the sanctions related to the Optimus incident, there were no special reasons for disqualification, and the performance during the tenure was also improved. In particular, considering the banknote practice of granting a two-year term and extending one year, it seems likely that the chief executive who has finished his first term may be able to entrust another critical responsibility.
If the branch manager moves to Hana Financial Group, competition over the succession of the next chairman is expected to become more intense. It is observed that if vice chairman Ham and vice chairman Jin-guk Lee shake off the judicial risk, the candidate may rise to the’zero rank’ again.
However, in 1956, these two will turn 66 next year. There is also a view that a generational change can be achieved at all due to the bylaws that allow only the age of 70 to serve as president. In this case, it is an observation that Vice-Chief Park along with Chief Ji-haeng may serve as a candidate for the president.
Jeongtae Kim Chairman of Hana Financial Group [사진=하나금융그룹 제공]