Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Female leadership race begins between Naver, Kakao
Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, left, and Kakao CEO nominee Chung Shin-a / Courtesy of each company
By Baek Byung-yeul
Naver and Kakao, Korea's two major internet companies, are in a female leadership contest after the latter recently nominated Chung Shin-a, chief of the group's venture capital unit, as CEO, according to industry officials and experts.
Naver, operator of Korea's most used internet portal service, and Kakao, which owns the most popular mobile chat app KakaoTalk, are both to be run by female CEOs.
Of note, is how these two CEOs will lead the internet giants in the AI era, they said.
The appointment of women as CEOs in a rapidly changing IT industry is explained by their expertise in the sector, they said. Also, by appointing women as new leaders, the companies can expect to refresh their image.
"What is expected from female CEOs is not only their expertise but that they can scrutinize the business more thoroughly as women," Kim Dae-jong, a professor of business administration at Sejong University, said.
On Wednesday, Kakao announced Chung, the CEO of Kakao Ventures, as its CEO nominee. If Chung gets approval at a board meeting and a general shareholders' meeting next March, she will be formally appointed as Kakao's first female CEO.
Since joining Kakao Ventures in 2014, Chung has been investing in and managing startups. Since becoming the CEO of the venture capital unit in 2018, she has helped grow a number of startups into large companies.
Based on her broad experience in the IT business, she has also overseen Kakao's corporate alignment council this year, looking at the service status and strategy of the entire group.
Kakao has been criticized recently for executive risk, and Chung's appointment came just two days after Kakao founder Kim Beom-su declared a fundamental change.
In October, Bae Jae-hyun, chief investment officer of Kakao, was arrested on suspicion of stock manipulation in connection with the company’s acquisition of SM Entertainment. Kim also had to appear at the Financial Supervisory Service to answer questions related to the case. Also, the company had an internal conflict recently as one of the executives on its alignment council used an offensive word during an executives' meeting.
Kakao said Chung will oversee future direction as the leader of the management innovation committee task force before she officially becomes CEO next March.
"Kakao has been engulfed in management risk. The move reflects the will of Kakao's founder to overcome this crisis by appointing a woman as a new leader," professor Kim said.
Naver is also run by a female CEO, Choi Soo-yeon. Naver appointed Han Sung-sook as its first female CEO in 2017, and Choi was appointed as her successor in 2021, becoming CEO after the 2022 general shareholders' meeting.
As the new CEO of Naver, she had the task of reforming the organizational culture and driving new growth engines, and since then, she has introduced a new work system and launched a generative AI business around the same time as global big techs, making Naver one of the leaders in emerging technology trends.