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| Hwang Young-key |
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| Kim Ki-hong |
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| Kim Ok-chan |
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| Yoon Jong-kyu |
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| Lee Dong-gul |
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| Ji Dong-hyun |
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| Yang Seung-woo |
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| Ha Yung-ku |
KB Financial Group has shortlisted the number of candidates for its new chairman to eight, and plans to cut the number to four by mid October. None of them are bureaucrats.
"The chairman selection committee consulted with two head-hunting companies to select eight out of 84 potential candidates for the top post," KB Financial said in a statement Friday.
The candidates include three outsiders and five former executives who worked for KB Financial, KB Kookmin Bank or other KB affiliates. Interestingly, among the former KB executives is Hwang Young-key who stepped down in September 2009 taking responsibility for losses at Woori Finance Holdings while he served as chairman of that company.
The committee, composed of nine outside directors, plans to hold a meeting in the middle of the month to pick four based on their careers and references, the statement said.
The recruiting companies will then thoroughly review the four and select a final candidate as early as late October. The final candidate needs to gain approval at a shareholders' meeting slated for Nov. 21. But whether the new KB Financial chief will also serve as president of KB Kookmin Bank, the financial group's flagship unit, has not yet been decided.
The seven other candidates are Kim Ki-hong, a former senior executive vice president of KB Kookmin Bank; Kim Ok-chan, a former vice president of KB Kookmin; Yoon Jong-kyu, a former chief financial officer of KB Financial; Lee Dong-gul, a former vice chairman of Shinhan Investment; Ji Dong-hyun, a former vice president of KB Kookmin Card; Yang Seung-woo, chief executive of consulting firm Deloitte Anjin LLC; and an unidentified candidate.
KB Financial did not disclose the identity of the eighth candidate, stating that the candidate ― reportedly Citibank Korea Chief Executive Ha Yung-ku ― has not specified whether he will accept the candidacy.
Lee Chul-hwi, chief executive of the Seoul Shinmun newspaper, was also among the short list of the candidates but declined to accept, officials said.
On Thursday, the National Pension Service, the biggest shareholder of KB Financial with a share of 9.96 percent, underscored the desirable role of a financial holding company. The bank's union asked the committee to name an insider as chairman to avoid additional power struggles between "parachuted" outsiders, according to the statement.
This month, KB Financial Chairman Lim Young-rok was forced to step down by the bank's board over a months-long internal conflict with KB Kookmin Bank President Lee Kun-ho who quit earlier. Their conflicts over the change of KB's online banking system from an International Business Machines' main frame system into a Unix-based system resulted in disciplinary warnings by the financial authorities.
Lim argued the change was the right decision to cut costs but Lee took issue with KB technology executives' attempts to hide unstable factors within the Unix system. The conflict began in May when Lee asked the Financial Supervisory Service to investigate the case.
Lim and Lee were both government appointees.
Analysts said the committee excluded former high-ranking officials at government agencies from the selection process to help put the company back on track after the continued internal sparring nearly tore the country's biggest retailer bank apart.
