Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon to serve another term
Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon / Courtesy of Citibank Korea
By Anna J. Park
Yoo successfully reshapes profit model by focusing on corporate finance
By Anna J. Park
Yoo Myung-soon, CEO of Citibank Korea, will be serving another three-year term, being the sole candidate for the position.
The bank's executive candidate recommendation committee highly recognized Yoo for her management capacity in strengthening corporate finance, while spearheading the gradual reduction of its consumer banking operation. Yoo has been the head of Citibank Korea since November 2020.
“The committee highly evaluated Yoo's successful strategic reshaping of the bank's profit model during her term as CEO by focusing on corporate finance, while implementing the gradual reduction of consumer finance,” the bank's executive candidate recommendation committee said.
“Improvements in key financial indicators have become visibly evident in 2023, with the effects of the strategic reshaping of the bank's profit model taking place,” the committee said of the reason for recommending Yoo to serve another term.
Citibank Korea posted a net profit of 177.7 billion won ($133 million) for the first half of this year, a 126 percent hike from the same period last year.
The recommendation committee also highlighted that Yoo has sufficiently demonstrated strong management capabilities during her three-year term as the top executive. She also laid out medium-term strategic goals under a clear vision of elevating the bank to join the top five franchises within Citigroup during her reappointment term, the committee added.
Born in 1964, Yoo graduated from Ewha Womans University with a bachelor's degree in English education. She earned her master's in finance from Sogang University.
Since she began working at Citibank Korea in 1987, she has held various key positions in corporate finance, including head of multinational corporate banking and deputy head of corporate banking products, senior deputy head of corporate banking group over the past three decades.
She briefly served as managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Seoul for a year and three months from April 2014 to June 2015, but returned to Citibank Korea to lead the corporate banking business later that year.
She became the first female CEO of Citibank Korea in November 2020. It was also the first time ever that a woman was appointed as the CEO of a private bank in Korea's history.
Citibank Korea will officially appoint the next CEO with a three-year term, after holding a shareholder's meeting and a board meeting slated for Oct. 27.