[Exclusive] NHN Second Generation Management Training... Chairman Lee Junho's Son Lee Sumin Joins with Experience

[Graphic and Analysis by Im Hee-jin]

[Asia Economy Reporters Park Soyeon and Kang Nahum] It has been confirmed that Lee Sumin, the son of NHN Chairman Lee Junho, has joined NHN as an experienced employee and is currently working there.

According to investment banking (IB) and IT industry sources on the 11th, Lee Sumin, who majored in engineering in the United States, joined NHN as an experienced hire in August last year. Within the IT industry, internal verification processes regarding Lee Sumin are underway, which is understood as a preparatory step for second-generation management at NHN.

An NHN official stated, "He has joined the company, but since he is young, it is difficult to say it is management training," adding, "Many employees working with him are still unaware that he is the chairman’s son, and detailed information such as his department is private and difficult to disclose."

Chairman Lee Junho was born in 1964 and is 58 years old, while Lee Sumin was born in 1992 and is 31 years old. Although it is still early to discuss succession, the chairman has already gifted company shares to Lee Sumin through on-market purchases.

From May to August 2016, Lee Junho purchased 500,000 shares each of NHN (formerly NHN Entertainment) stock for his son Lee Sumin and daughter Lee Surin in a total of 40 transactions.

Given the high shareholding ratio of the largest shareholder, which reduces the need for additional purchases to defend management rights, the acquisition of shares for his children attracted market attention.

It was also unusual that the shares were purchased on the market as listed NHN stock, rather than using unlisted shares or other affiliates typically employed by owners.

The chairman paid nearly 40 billion KRW in gift taxes while transferring his assets to his children so they could purchase the shares. As the two children were registered on the shareholder list, the market has focused on the possibility of management training.

Among NHN’s major shareholders, Chairman Lee Junho holds 18.12%, affiliate JLC holds 14.66%, JLC Partners holds 10.66%, Lee Sumin holds 2.67%, and Lee Surin holds 2.67%. The National Pension Service also holds 6.5%.

Meanwhile, Chairman Lee, the largest shareholder of NHN, is known as one of the most reclusive executives in the information and communications industry, alongside Lee Hae-jin, the founder of Naver and Global Investment Officer (GIO).

Chairman Lee is three years senior to Lee GIO in the Computer Engineering Department at Seoul National University and co-managed Naver from 2000. He is known as a search expert and former professor at Soongsil University, famous for developing the 'Empas natural language search' technology that allows searching with sentences instead of keywords.

He is credited with ushering in the golden age of Naver search while serving as NHN’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) from 2005 to 2013.

After spinning off the gaming division 'Hangame' from Naver in 2013 to establish NHN Entertainment, he sought new growth engines outside gaming, such as the simple payment service 'Payco,' cloud, and big data technologies.

The name NHN was used for 12 years starting in 2001 when the search portal Naver merged with the gaming company Hangame.

In 2013, through a spin-off, the gaming division was separated again, with NHN becoming Naver and the spun-off company renamed NHN Entertainment. NHN Entertainment changed its name back to NHN in April 2019.

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