Succession at AmorePacific kicks off

By Park Jae-hyuk

AmorePacific Chairman Suh Kyung-bae has decided to hire his eldest daughter as an entry-level employee, in what is regarded as a move to begin the company’s long-awaited third-generational succession.

Suh Min-jung, 25, is employed as a rank-and-file staffer of AmorePacific Group, as was posted on the company’s bulletin board on Thursday.

She will start working next Monday at the Beauty Campus in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, as a member of the skincare (SC) manufacturing technology team, which is in charge of operating manufacturing facilities for skincare products.

“Chairman Suh also started his first work as a staffer at a manufacturing plant of Taepyeongyang, the former name of AmorePacific, in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, in the late 1980s,” a spokesperson of AmorePacific Group said. “Based on his experience there, the chairman led the construction of a factory in Janghang, South Chungcheong Province.”

The spokesperson added, “Like her father, the junior Suh will work at a manufacturing division, a fundamental of the cosmetics industry, to succeed our company’s core value of quality first, which was emphasized by founder Suh Sung-whan.”

AmorePacific Group hired the younger Suh as one of its career employees, recognizing her year and a half of experience in Bain & Company. She had worked at the global consulting firm since July last year, after getting a bachelor’s degree in economics at Cornell University in the U.S.

Observers see that Min-jung’s employment means the beginning of the chairman’s management succession. AmorePacific Group spokesperson also said the daughter will have a chance to learn about the company and its management.

Chairman Suh, who is married to the youngest daughter of Nongshim Chairman Shin Choon-ho, has two daughters ㅡ Min-jung and Ho-jung.

Min-jung, the older daughter, is the second-largest shareholder of the group with a 2.71 percent share, while the 21-year-old Ho-jung has no shares at all.

The chairman has 51.29 percent and his older sister Song-sook has 0.11 percent.

The chairman in 2006 gave 2,412,710 shares of AmorePacific Group to Min-jung. In 2012, he additionally gave his eldest daughter an 18.18 percent share of Innisfree and 19.52 percent of Etude, which are two major subsidiaries of the group.

As Min-jung has held onto her given shares, she will be able to exercise her vote at a general meeting of shareholders that will take place next March.

Min-jung’s wealth reportedly reaches 300 billion won ($249 million).