KB Financial Group Recommends New Outside Director Candidates Kim Seong-yong, Yeo Jeong-seong, and Jo Hwa-jun

From the left, Seongyong Kim, Jeongseong Yeo, Hwajun Jo, KB Financial Group Outside Director Candidates

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] KB Financial Group's Outside Director Candidate Recommendation Committee (ODCRC) announced on the 22nd that it has recommended three new outside director candidates and three reappointed outside director candidates.

The recommended candidates are scheduled to be officially appointed as outside directors of KB Financial Group following approval at the regular shareholders' meeting to be held on March 24.

The new outside director candidates are Professor Kim Seong-yong of Sungkyunkwan University School of Law, Professor Yeo Jeong-seong of Seoul National University Department of Consumer Science, and Cho Hwa-jun, full-time auditor of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Korea. Their terms are two years.

Outside directors Kim Kyung-ho, Kwon Seon-ju, and Oh Gyu-taek were recommended as reappointed outside director candidates for a one-year term.

If new candidates Yeo and Cho, and reappointed candidate Kwon are appointed at the March regular shareholders' meeting, three female outside directors will join the board for the first time in a domestic financial holding company.

As a result, the proportion of female outside directors at KB Financial will increase from 28.6% to 42.8% among the seven outside directors, exceeding the 40% female outside director ratio mandated by the European Union (EU) starting June 2026.

Kim Seong-yong, recommended as a new outside director, is a legal expert currently serving as a professor at Sungkyunkwan University School of Law, having previously worked as a lawyer at a law firm. The company explained that he is a leading authority in the fields of bankruptcy law and corporate restructuring.

Candidate Yeo is a professor in the Department of Consumer Science at Seoul National University's College of Human Ecology and is an authority in consumer studies, having served as president of the Korean Consumer Studies Association and the Korean Consumer Policy and Education Association.

Candidate Cho is an expert in finance and accounting, having served as CFO of KTF, CFO of BC Card, and CEO of KT Capital. She was also the first female president in the KT Group and currently serves as a full-time auditor at Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Korea.

Meanwhile, the three new candidates were recommended through the ODCRC’s outside director candidate recommendation process, which is composed solely of outside directors and operates independently. Introduced in 2015, this system proceeds in three stages. KB Financial explained that the entities responsible for each stage are strictly separated, ensuring transparency and fairness throughout the candidate recommendation process.

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