Lee Soo-man steps down from SM board of directors

Entertainment entrepreneur Lee Soo-man, founder and chairman of Korea's major talenthouse SM Entertainment, will no longer be involved in general business activities at the company.

In a phone conversation with Asia Economic Daily on Thursday, an official at SM confirmed that Lee had "recently resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors."

He explained that the businessman had decided to do so in order to "focus more energy on SM's overseas business, new business management and artist development".

Lee, 57, started his music career in the 1970s as a singer of Korean pop band April & May and released his first of several solo albums in 1983.

He established SM in 1995, which quickly became one of the most influential talent agencies in Korea. He has created and masterminded the successful careers of numerous K-pop artists including BoA, Girls' Generation, SHINee, Super Junior and TVXQ.

SM also manages many songwriters, music producers, comedians and actors including Ara, Choi Jung-yoon and Lee Yeon-hee.

Reporter : Park Kun-ouc kun1112@asiae.co.kr
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr