CJ CheilJedang Appoints First Female Inside Director... "Enhancing Board Diversity and Expertise"

So-Young Kim, newly appointed inside director at CJ CheilJedang.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CJ CheilJedang announced on the 26th that it held its regular general shareholders' meeting and appointed Kim So-young, Head of the AN Business Division (Vice President), as a new inside director. She is CJ CheilJedang's first female inside director, with a term lasting until March 2024.

CJ CheilJedang expects that appointing Director Kim, who has achieved outstanding results in the company's bio business sector, will strengthen the board's diversity while enhancing its expertise. In particular, the company emphasized the significance of appointing a long-serving internal executive as an inside director and selecting a female executive from within the company rather than recruiting externally, which is a very rare case in the business community.

Director Kim graduated from Yonsei University with a degree in Food and Biotechnology, completed doctoral coursework at the same university, and finished a postdoctoral research program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. She joined CJ CheilJedang's Bio Research Institute in 2004, was promoted to managing director in 2013, and to vice president in 2018. Since joining, she has worked in R&D, served as head of the Bio Technology Research Institute, and was appointed head of the Bio Business Division's AN (Animal Nutrition) Business Division at the end of last year. She is highly regarded for her significant contributions to CJ CheilJedang's world-class green bio research and development (R&D) competitiveness.

The appointment of Director Kim also reflects the company's intention to further strengthen 'ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management,' which has become an essential condition for global companies. In fact, major domestic and international ESG evaluation agencies, including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), consider the expansion of 'board diversity' under the 'G (Governance)' category as an important evaluation criterion.

A CJ CheilJedang official stated, “The appointment of Kim So-young as an inside director will be an opportunity for CJ CheilJedang to take a step forward as a truly global company,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen diversity and expertise within the board.”

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