[Analysis of Female Outside Directors] ③ Only 5 Companies with Over Half Female Representation... Clear Concentration of 'Women Professors in Their 50s'

Top 30 Domestic Companies by Sales

Female Outside Directors Account for 27.97%
Gender Diversity Still Limited

Kia Board Has 3 out of 5 Members, the Highest
16 Companies Including KT Appoint Only One
Amended Capital Market Act Seen as Mere Formality

Professional Diversity Also Lacking
6 out of 10 Are Current or Former Professors
Most Directors Are in Their 50s

The proportion of female outside directors in major domestic companies was found to be less than 30%. There are criticisms that companies remain passive regarding gender diversity on their boards.

The professional diversity of female outside directors was also insufficient. Six out of ten outside directors were found to be current or former professors. The most common age group was also in their 50s.

Diversity among outside directors is important to convey various voices to the company and to supervise work from perspectives different from those inside the company. In this regard, there are calls for major domestic companies to establish diverse personnel compositions in terms of gender, profession, and age.

Only 5 Major Companies Have More Than Half Female Outside Directors... POSCO Has None

On the 16th, Asia Economy conducted a full survey on the status of female outside directors in the top 30 domestic companies by sales for 2024 compared to 2023. The proportion of female outside directors in the industry rose by 5.83 percentage points from 22.15% in 2023 to 27.97% in one year. GS Caltex and Samsung Display, which are unlisted companies and not required to have outside directors, were excluded.

Among the top 30 companies, Kia had the highest proportion of female outside directors. Out of 5 outside directors, 3 were female, making up 60%, the only company to reach this level. SK Energy, LG Chem, LG Display, and LG Energy Solution each had half of their outside directors as women.

Samsung Electronics, the top domestic company by sales, appointed 2 female outside directors out of 6 total. They appointed Professor Cho Hye-kyung from Hansung University’s AI Application Department and Visiting Professor Yoo Myung-hee from Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies as members of the Audit Committee.

KT had only one female outside director, Professor Cho Seung-ah from Seoul National University’s Business School (born 1967, 57 years old), among 8 outside directors. Besides KT, 15 companies had only one female outside director. It is expected that these companies will find it difficult to avoid criticism that they only met the minimum requirements due to the revised Capital Markets Act. The revised Capital Markets Act stipulates that when forming a board of directors for companies with assets exceeding 2 trillion won, the board should not be composed of only one gender. However, there are no penalty provisions, so the law lacks binding force.

POSCO was the only company that did not hire any female outside directors. Like last year, POSCO did not appoint any female outside directors this year. However, at the group level, the trend is to expand the appointment of female outside directors. POSCO Holdings reappointed Yoo Young-sook, former principal researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and POSCO Future M appointed Lee Bok-sil, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, as new outside directors.

Female Outside Directors Are Simply "50s Korean Professors"

The lack of diversity among outside directors in major domestic companies was not limited to gender. Particularly, there was a noticeable concentration in the careers of female outside directors. Professors accounted for the highest proportion at 62.5%, although this was a 5.24 percentage point decrease from the previous year. Following professors were businesspeople at 17.5%, accountants and lawyers at 15%, and those affiliated with academies and foundations at 5%.

The average age of female outside directors was 56, one year older than last year's 55. The youngest were Professor Lee Hyun-joo of KAIST’s Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, an outside director at LG Chem, and Associate Professor Ahn Sung-hee of Catholic University’s Department of Accounting at Daewoo Construction, both born in 1976 (47 years old). The oldest was Kim Deok-hyun, a lawyer at Jinsung Law Firm and outside director at Samsung SDI, born in 1958 (66 years old).

There were no foreign outside directors. Although Samsung C&T and S-Oil appointed Janice Lee, an advisor at Kim & Chang Law Firm, as an outside director, she was excluded as she is of Korean descent.

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