Citibank Korea expected to see its first female CEO soon

Interim CEO Yoo Myung-soon / Courtesy of Citibank Korea

By Anna J. Park

Yoo Myung-soon, Citibank Korea's interim CEO since September, is expected to lead the global lender's local unit in Korea as the country's first female CEO of a commercial bank from the end of the month.

The bank announced Wednesday that it held the second appointment recommendation committee earlier in the day, deciding to recommend Yoo, the bank's Senior Executive Vice President and current interim CEO, as the sole candidate for the post of the next CEO of the bank.

Yoo is expected to be officially tapped to lead the U.S.-headquartered bank's Seoul operation on Oct. 27, when the shareholders' meeting and the board of directors are slated to be held.

If approved and confirmed as the next CEO at the shareholders' meeting, as well as at the board of directors meeting later this month, Yoo will be the very first female CEO leading a commercial bank in Korea.

The first woman to become CEO of a state-run bank in Korea was Kwon Sun-joo, who led the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) for two years from 2014 to 2016.

No female CEO has ever served the top position at a commercial bank in Korea, whether a Korea-headquartered lender or a global institution.

While Yoo is almost sure to take the position in Korea, in the industry very few female workers have reached executive levels at domestic financial companies. It was reported that as of the first half of this year only 5.3 percent of the total number of executives working at the nation's major financial groups were women.

Yoo started her career as a corporate analyst at Citibank Korea in 1987 and continued to climb to various significant posts at the bank over the next 30 years, including working as the corporate department's risk manager and the head of investment banking. She also briefly worked at JP Morgan Chase's Seoul branch in 2014 as a managing director.

Yoo studied English education at Ewha Womans University and earned an MBA degree from Sogang University. /