Kakao's Kim Beom-su Leads Group Management... To Serve as Co-Chair of CA Council

Two-Top System with Jeongsin-a, Kakao CEO Nominee
Strengthening Group Control Tower Like Samsung's MIS Division

Kim Beom-su, founder of Kakao and chairman of the Management Innovation Committee, will take a full-scale role in group management. Similar to Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office, the community control tower will be reorganized, and he will serve as co-chairman alongside Jeong Sin-ah, the designated CEO of Kakao. Through this, they aim to lead the overall management strategy of the group beyond short-term innovation efforts.

On the 2nd, Kakao held a meeting attended by Chairman Kim and the CEOs of 13 affiliated companies under agreement, announcing the formation of a new CA (Corporate Alignment) council. The CA council is an independent organization within the Kakao group that coordinates internal interests and forms consensus.

The co-chairs of the revised CA council will be Chairman Kim and Jeong Sin-ah, the designated CEO of Kakao. This is to accelerate the transformation into a new Kakao, moving away from the previous autonomous management approach.

With this, Chairman Kim will take a full-scale role in group management. Instead of relying on a loose autonomous management system, he will stand at the center of a control tower with strengthened centripetal force. Chairman Kim stepped down from frontline management in March last year. After judicial risks stemming from allegations of market manipulation at SM Entertainment spread throughout the group, he took on the role of Kakao Management Innovation Committee chairman from November last year. While he was previously responsible for short-term innovation, this time he intends to directly oversee major issues of affiliated companies in the mid to long term.

The council will include multiple committees such as the Management Innovation Committee led directly by Chairman Kim, and the Strategy Committee that reviews key performance indicators (KPIs) and investments of each affiliated company. Each committee will identify tasks that need to be discussed at the group level by area and provide opinions related to direction and policy. The chairman will use this information to decide on reference and recommendation opinions for each affiliated company and take responsibility for solving group-level issues in the relevant areas. The specific composition of the committees and the appointment of individual committee chairs will be finalized as soon as possible through discussions.

The CEOs of the 13 affiliated companies under agreement (Kakao, Kakao Games, Kakao Mobility, Kakao Bank, Kakao Ventures, Kakao Brain, Kakao Style, Kakao Entertainment, Kakao Enterprise, Kakao Investment, Kakao Pay, Kakao Piccoma, Kakao Healthcare) will attend the Management Innovation Committee by default. In addition, they can choose to participate in up to three other committees as they wish.

Under the CA council, a general department will be established to support group-level executive personnel appointments, including affiliated company CEOs, and to operate the group council. After detailed organization of the subordinate working groups over the next month, the CA council plans to hold monthly group council meetings starting in February. Important matters will be directly decided by the CA council and the CEOs of major affiliated companies.

At the meeting, Chairman Kim stated, "A growth direction and management system that meet society’s standards and trust are necessary," adding, "We will lead innovation in areas including personnel reform, governance, brand, and corporate culture." Designated CEO Jeong said, "Through CEOs’ participation in the committees, we will enhance understanding of the group’s decision-making context and strengthen internal controls based on the increased resolution. We will move away from the previously loose autonomous management approach and increase centripetal force."

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