Ham Young-joo takes office as chairman of Hana Financial

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo / Courtesy of Hana Financial Group

New leader tasked with bolstering digitalization, revenue diversification

By Lee Min-hyung

Hana Financial Group Chairman Ham Young-joo took office Friday as the new leader of the financial holding firm, replacing outgoing leader Kim Jung-tai.

He took the helm of the nation's third-largest financial group immediately after getting approval from shareholders at the regular shareholders' meeting on the same day. He will lead the company for three years until March 2025.

Ham has been a de facto No. 2 figure within the group since 2019, during which he has been in charge of Hana's overall business management, including strategy-setting and finance, supporting Kim.

Even if the Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy adviser, recently expressed its opposition to Ham's promotion to chairman, shareholders voted in favor of the leadership reshuffle in recognition of his achievement in the group's earnings growth and digital transformation.

One risk was whether the National Pension Service (NPS), the largest shareholder of Hana, would approve Ham's promotion, but the state-run pension fund also gave its consent, as well as that of foreign shareholders who account for two-thirds of the stake.

Ham is tasked with handling a series of pending issues under his three-year chairmanship at a crucial time when external financial uncertainties here and abroad have been high amid the pandemic.

He will particularly focus on speeding up the group's full-fledged digital transformation amid its toughening rivalry with big tech firms such as Naver and Kakao, whose influence continually grows in the financial sector.

This move is in line with the group's digital motto of “Beyond Finance.” The slogan has been chanted by the group on its longer-term vision of building a data-driven financial information firm.

Ham is also expected to map out more concrete strategies for its revenue diversification into the non-banking sector. Just as other major financial firms, he will also focus more on expanding its global presence, as part of efforts to reduce its reliance on the local market.

The headquarters of Hana Financial Group in central Seoul / Korea Times file

Ham, 66, is best-known as a self-made man. Born to a poor farming family, he started working at Seoul Bank, a predecessor of Hana Bank, after graduating from high school. He later got a college diploma, by working during the day and studying at night.

Equipped with business acumen and insightfulness, he has taken on major positions within the group and its key affiliates. He served as the former leader of Hana Bank for four years from 2015 to 2019. Back in 2017, the lender generated a record net profit of more than 2 trillion won for the first time in its history, which helped him establish a solid foothold in the group.

He has focused on setting the group's overall environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) business strategies since 2020. He also engaged himself in the group's establishment of mid- to long-term plans as a former vice chairman.

Hana Financial Group's total assets reached 408 trillion won at the end of 2015, and have since expanded to 653.4 trillion won as of the end of 2021. Between 2015 and 2021, when he served as the vice chairman, Hana's net profit grew 288 percent, marking a record-high of 3.52 trillion won in net profit last year.