Chairman Shin Dong-bin's Eldest Son Joins Japan Lotte... Preparing for '3rd Generation Management'?

by Lee Seungjin

Published 20 Oct.2020 18:00(KST)

Yoo Yeol, the eldest son of Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Shin Yuyeol (34), the eldest son of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, recently joined a Lotte affiliate in Japan.

According to business circles on the 20th, Shin recently joined and is currently working at a Lotte affiliate in Japan. Although his exact position and duties have not been disclosed, it is reported that he joined at a director level or higher.

Shin graduated from Keio University in Japan and completed an MBA program at Columbia University in the United States. He has worked at Nomura Securities' Singapore branch, among other places.

Since Shin is following a path similar to his father Chairman Shin, there is analysis that Lotte is preparing for a third-generation management system.

Chairman Shin graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan and then received an MBA from Columbia University. After working at Nomura Securities' London branch, he joined Lotte Trading in Japan in 1988 and then Honam Petrochemical (now Lotte Chemical) in 1990, beginning his involvement in managing Lotte in Korea. The ages at which Shin and Chairman Shin joined Lotte are also similar.

Meanwhile, Chairman Shin, who conducted an early personnel reshuffle in August and headed to Japan, returned to Korea and resumed his duties last weekend after about two months.

Earlier, Chairman Shin departed for Japan on August 13. He went to work on the 20th and personally presided over the weekly business report held in the afternoon. Chairman Shin is expected to meet with executives this week to review pressing issues.

After the unusual early personnel reshuffle in August, he has been overseeing issues at each affiliate for two months and is expected to receive next year’s business plans.

After reviewing the status of each affiliate, Chairman Shin is likely to prepare for the year-end personnel reshuffle immediately. Although year-end personnel changes are usually conducted around the end of December to take effect on January 1, Lotte senior officials expect this year’s reshuffle to be about a month earlier.