'Organizational Stability' Kwon Kwang-seok to Lead Woori Bank for One More Year (Comprehensive)

Woori Financial Self-Nomination Committee Recommends Current CEO Kwon Kwang-seok for Woori Bank President
One-Year Term... Final Decision at Upcoming General Meeting
Positive Evaluation of Private Equity Fund Crisis Management, Leadership Change Concerns

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Kwon Kwang-seok, CEO of Woori Bank whose term expires on the 25th of this month, will lead Woori Bank for one more year.

Woori Financial Group held a Subsidiary CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee (Sajoowi) on the 4th and recommended CEO Kwon Kwang-seok as the final candidate for the next Woori Bank CEO.

The market had anticipated CEO Kwon’s reappointment. When he took office last year, he was unusually given only a one-year term, and he was evaluated to have quickly stabilized the organization amid the bank’s turmoil caused by last year’s Derivative Linked Fund (DLF) and Lime Fund incidents. Additionally, there was speculation that replacing the CEO would be burdensome while Sohn Tae-seung, Chairman of Woori Financial Group, was under heavy disciplinary action by financial authorities related to the Lime incident.

The Sajoowi explained the recommendation background, stating, "Despite difficult internal and external financial environments such as the COVID-19 crisis after CEO Kwon’s inauguration, he has been stabilizing the organization and strengthening its fundamentals, responding swiftly to the rapidly changing digital environment, and enhancing sales capabilities by introducing a collaboration system between branches (VG and Gachi Group system) as part of channel innovation to provide advanced financial services to customers, as well as considering management continuity."

However, this time the term was extended by only one year again. Under the current Commercial Act, the CEO’s term can be up to three years. The Sajoowi explained, "Considering that last year’s management performance was poor and that recovering management performance this year is important, we recommended CEO Kwon as the final candidate with a one-year extension to enable recovery of management performance." CEO Kwon’s appointment will be finalized after going through the bank’s Executive Recommendation Committee, the board of directors, and the regular shareholders’ meeting to be held on the 25th of this month.

CEO Kwon joined Commercial Bank in 1988 and served as head of the Woori Bank Washington Branch Sales Headquarters, head of the Trade Center Financial Center, head of Public Relations at Woori Financial Group, head of External Cooperation at Woori Bank, and finally as CEO of the subsidiary Woori PE before leaving Woori Financial Group to serve as CEO of the National Credit Guarantee at Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association. In March last year, he was officially appointed as Woori Bank CEO after fierce competition.

Meanwhile, Woori Financial Group’s Sajoowi also recommended the reappointment of Kim Kyung-woo, CEO of Woori Private Equity Asset Management. The term is one year. CEO Kim has led Woori Private Equity Asset Management since March 2018 after working at JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. CEO Kim was recognized for achieving continuous performance improvement and successfully turning a profit last year after his appointment.

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