Cosmax Appoints Lee Byung-man as New CEO... Restructuring 'Sibling Management'

Cosmax CEO Lee Byung-man to Strengthen Core Business with Vice Chairman Choi Kyung
Holding Company CEO Lee Byung-joo to Develop New Businesses with Vice Chairman Heo Min-ho
Professor Lee Yoon-hee of Seoul National University Appointed as First Female Outside Director

Cosmax, a cosmetics original design manufacturing (ODM) company, announced on the 27th that it has appointed Lee Byung-man, former CEO of Cosmax BTI, as its new CEO (President). Lee Byung-man, the eldest son of Lee Kyung-soo, chairman of Cosmax Group, will lead Cosmax, while his younger brother Lee Byung-joo will head the holding company Cosmax BTI.

From the left, Byeongman Lee, the new CEO of Cosmax, and Byeongju Lee, CEO of Cosmax BTI (Photo by Cosmax)

The newly appointed CEO Lee Byung-man joined Cosmax in 2005 and has been in charge of overseas marketing at Cosmax BTI since 2016. Since 2020, he has led Cosmax as CEO, driving digital transformation, expanding the Chinese market, and establishing a Japanese subsidiary. After being appointed CEO of the holding company in 2023, he has led digital businesses such as customized cosmetics and the health functional food sector.

Through this appointment, CEO Lee Byung-man plans to strengthen key businesses within the group alongside Choi Kyung, CEO (Vice Chairman) of Cosmax. In his New Year's address earlier this year, Lee emphasized active global communication expansion, including strengthening customized services for over 4,000 global clients to achieve mutual growth worldwide.

In particular, he is pushing for a second leap forward in China. He aims to diversify the more than 1,100 clients in China and operate a new headquarters in Shanghai by 2026 to target the 100 trillion won-scale Chinese cosmetics market.

Lee Byung-joo, CEO of Cosmax and Cosmax BTI, will serve as CEO of the holding company Cosmax BTI. Since 2014, he has worked as CFO and COO of Cosmax USA, focusing on improving management efficiency of the U.S. subsidiary and expanding the sales network in the western region. Since 2023, as CEO of Cosmax, he has expanded the domestic clients’ entry into Japan and the U.S.

As CEO of the holding company, Lee Byung-joo will collaborate with Heo Min-ho, a distribution expert from CJ Group and Vice Chairman of Cosmax BTI. Recently, Lee established an AI Innovation Group within the digital business division to focus on discovering future growth businesses at the group level. He plans to develop this further to expand new businesses and build an AI-customized cosmetics platform, focusing on discovering new revenue sources.

As CEO of the holding company, he will strengthen the control tower role of "Global One COSMAX." Global One COSMAX is a system that organizes the response capabilities to global clients by enabling real-time communication of research, development, and production capabilities among six domestic and overseas subsidiaries, including Korea.

Meanwhile, at this week’s shareholders’ meeting, Cosmax appointed Professor Lee Yoon-hee, head of the Department of Pharmacy at Seoul National University and a professor at the College of Pharmacy, as an outside director. She is the first female outside director in Cosmax’s history.

Cosmax NBT, an ODM affiliate specializing in health functional foods, appointed Kim Nam-joong, former Vice President and head of marketing at Cosmax, as its new CEO through the shareholders’ meeting and board of directors held on the 26th. The new CEO Kim contributed to the sales growth of the Korean subsidiary through his experience in production and sales divisions.

A Cosmax Group official said, "The new CEOs have contributed to the growth of the group’s core businesses based on their expertise. With the addition of both existing and externally appointed executives, they will create new synergies for the globalization of K-beauty and the growth of the group."

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