NH Nonghyup Financial, Son Byunghwan, President of Nonghyup Bank, Final Recommendation as Chairman Candidate

"Best Candidate to Lead the Post-Corona Era"
Official Inauguration of the 5th NH Nonghyup Bank President on March 26
Appointed as Chairman Candidate Just Over 9 Months After Becoming President

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] NH Nonghyup Financial Group announced on the 22nd that its Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee held a meeting and finally recommended Son Byunghwan, the current CEO of Nonghyup Bank, as the candidate for the new CEO and Chairman.

The NH Financial Group's candidate recommendation committee urgently initiated the management succession process following the resignation of former Chairman Kim Kwangsoo on the 27th of last month and conducted multiple rounds of evaluations. They explained that they devoted great effort to objectively and fairly verifying and comparing both internal and external candidates and selected the final candidate through competitive interviews.

The final selected candidate, Son, was born in 1962, graduated from Jinju High School and Seoul National University with a degree in Agricultural Education, and joined the Nonghyup Central Association. He is a representative planning and strategy expert within Nonghyup. Notably, during his tenure as head of the Smart Finance Department in 2015, he made significant contributions to the establishment of the NH Fintech Innovation Center and the introduction of Korea’s first open API. Since last year, he has served as head of the Business Strategy Division and Management Planning Division of NH Financial Group and as CEO of Nonghyup Bank, leading the group to recent strong performance.

Since its launch in 2012, NH Nonghyup Financial Group has consistently recruited financial experts from the bureaucracy and demonstrated successful progress as a cooperative financial group, achieving significant milestones such as the acquisition of Woori Investment & Securities.

Regarding the background of appointing an internal candidate as the CEO and Chairman of the financial holding company this time, the NH Financial Group candidate recommendation committee stated, "If the previous period was a time to systematically establish the foundation of the financial holding company within Nonghyup, the upcoming period will focus on solid growth and securing new business areas by leveraging synergy with agriculture and rural communities." They added, "Therefore, we judged candidate Son, who has broad insight into Nonghyup and outstanding digital expertise, to be the optimal person to lead NH Nonghyup Financial Group in the post-COVID-19 era."

If CEO Son is finally appointed, it will be the first time since the early days, excluding former Chairman Shin Choongsik, that an internal candidate has taken the position of Chairman of NH Nonghyup Financial Group. Notably, he will ascend to the chairman position just nine months after becoming CEO. Son officially took office as the 5th CEO of NH Nonghyup Bank on March 26.

NH Nonghyup Financial Group plans to finalize the appointment after reporting to the board of directors and holding a shareholders' meeting. The term of office will be two years, from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022.

Meanwhile, the next CEO of Nonghyup Bank will be decided by the Executive Candidate Recommendation Committee of the financial holding company.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.