Ham Young-ju’s reappointment at crossroads… 5 candidates selected for Hana Financial Group's next chairman

[Korea Financial Times, Han aran] With the term of Hana Financial Holdings Chairman Ham Young-ju expiring next March, the shortlist of candidates for the next chairman has been narrowed down to five. A total of five candidates, including three internal candidates, including Chairman Ham, Vice Chairman and Hana Bank President Lee Seung-yeol, and Vice Chairman and Hana Securities President Kang Sung-mook, and two external candidates, will compete.

Hana Financial Holdings said on Dec. 23 that it held a presidential candidate recommendation committee and selected incumbent Chairman Ham Young-ju, Vice Chairman Lee Seung-yeol, President Kang Sung-mook, and two external candidates as the shortlist for the next president through deliberations and voting. It did not disclose the names of the external candidates.

The financial sector is weighing in on whether Ham will be reappointed. Born in 1956, Chairman Ham joined the Bank of Seoul in 1980 after graduating from Kangkyung Sanghoe High School in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do. After the merger of Seoul Bank and Hana Bank, he served as the head of Hana Bank's Bundang Central Branch, head of household business promotion, head of the Southern Region, head of the North Chungnam Region, head of the Daejeon Sales Center, and head of the Chungcheong Business Center, making a name for himself as a sales expert.
In September 2015,he was appointed as the first president of KEB Hana Bank, which was merged with Hana Bank and Korea Exchange Bank, and was recognized for his management skills by leading the physical and chemical integration of the former Hana and KEB Hana Bank and its record-breaking performance. From March 2016, he also served as Vice Chairman of Hana Financial, where he was in charge of the group's stability and prepared for the next chairman. Since 2019, he has been in charge of the group's strategy and financial planning as Vice Chairman of the Management Support Division, solidifying his position as the next chairman, and was appointed chairman in March 2022.

Chairman Ham has been evaluated as having a ‘passing grade’ in terms of financial performance, such as stabilizing the profit base of Hana Financial Group since taking office. The resolution of the legal risk related to the overseas interest rate-linked derivative-linked fund (DLF), which had been ongoing since before his appointment, is also considered a positive point for his reappointment.

The age issue, which was initially expected to weigh on his reappointment, has also been resolved. Hana Financial revised its internal code of corporate governance on the 2nd to allow the chairman to serve a maximum of three consecutive terms. According to the regulations before the revision, Chairman Ham Young-joo, who is currently 68 years old, could only serve until March 2027 even if he is reappointed, but with this revision, he can now serve a term of up to three more years until March 2028.

Chairman Ham's remaining legal risk is a variable. Chairman Ham is currently awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on charges of obstructing recruitment at Hana Bank. He was found guilty in the appeal trial last November and is currently appealing.

President Lee Seung-yeol and President Kang Sung-mook, who were also named as internal candidates alongside Ham, are considered key players in his regime. Both are currently serving as inside directors of the holding company. As vice chairmen of the group, they are in charge of group customer value, future growth strategy and group brand, respectively.

President Lee, a representative 'financial expert' of Hana Financial Group, was born in 1963 and graduated from Gyeongbuk High School and Seoul National University's Department of Economics. He joined KEB Hana Bank in 1991 and was in charge of strategic business. In 2016, shortly after the merger with Hana Bank, he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Hana Financial after serving as the head of Hana Bank's Business Planning Group, and in 2022, he became the CEO of Hana Life.

After joining the Bank of Korea in 1991, he served as the Trust Department, Team Lead of the Investor Relations Department, Team Lead of the Financial Planning Department, head of the Strategic Planning Department, and head of the Business Planning Department, and then served as head of the Integrated Hana Bank Business Planning Group, executive vice president of Hana Financial Holding Group Finance, deputy head of Hana Bank Business Planning Group and Social Value Headquarters, deputy head of Hana Bank Management Planning & Support Group, executive vice president of Hana Financial Holding Group Human Resources, and president of Hana Life.

Since January last year, he has served as the head of Hana Bank, where he has demonstrated not only financial but also sales capabilities. Last year, Lee's first year as head of Hana Bank, the bank posted the largest net profit in its history and succeeded in maintaining its position as the number one commercial bank in net profit. Hana's net profit last year was KRW 3.4766 trillion, up 2.3% year-on-year.
So far this year, the bank has posted a net profit of KRW 2.7808 trillion through the third quarter. Despite reflecting one-time expenses such as loss compensation on equity-linked securities (ELS) underlying Hong Kong's Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (H-index) and foreign exchange losses, the figure was up 0.5% year-on-year on solid loan asset growth. Lee will step down as head of Hana Bank at the end of this month after serving a two-year term.

President Kang Sung-mook was born in 1964 and graduated from Cheongju Shinheung High School and Sogang University’s Department of Sociology. He is a sales expert who served as the head of the Daejeon Sales Headquarters, the head of the Sales Support Group, and the head of the Central Sales Group 2 at Hana Bank. While working as the head of the Daejeon Sales Headquarters in 2015, he worked closely with Chairman Ham Young-joo, who was the head of the Chungcheong Sales Group at the time, and raised the Chungcheong Sales Group to No. 1 in national performance.

President Kang was appointed president of Hana Securities in January last year after serving as executive vice president of retail at Hana UBS Asset Management (now Hana Asset Management) and CEO of Hana Alternative Investment Asset Management. President Kang was recently reappointed ahead of the expiration of his term at the end of this month.

Chairman Ham’s term expires in March next year. The schedule for the Hana Financial Group’s Chairman Candidate Recommendation Committee (CCRC) was brought forward from previous years to reflect the Financial Supervisory Service’s best practices for holding company and bank governance structures. The Hana Financial Group's CCRC initiated the succession process 90 days prior to the regular shareholders' meeting scheduled to be held in March next year and conducted a thorough evaluation and verification process step by step. When Chairman Ham was appointed as chairman in 2022, the Hana Financial Group's CCRC selected a longlist in January of that year and completed the final selection of candidates in February.

In accordance with the CEO succession planning and candidate nomination process, the CCRC selected a shortlist of 12 candidates, including six internal candidates and six external candidates, at a meeting held earlier this month.

In order to thoroughly evaluate and verify CEO candidates as required by corporate governance best practices and to ensure fairness in the CEO selection process, the committee diversified the evaluation of candidates by referring to multi-faceted evaluations, external candidate recommendations through external advisory organizations, and in-depth reputation checks.

In particular, we held a meeting exclusively for external candidates on this day for the first time in the financial sector to ensure that the evaluation method and timing do not disadvantage external candidates. Before the announcement of the final candidates and in-depth interviews, we provided face-to-face contact with the recommendation committee members to answer questions about what they needed to prepare for the final interview.

“The external candidates' meeting is to explain Hana Financial Group to external candidates who may not be familiar with Hana Financial Group and to help them, but it is not is not a mandatory step for external candidates to go through to get a final interview.” said Lee Jung-won, Chairman of the Hana Financial's CCRC. ”The two external finalists are financial executives who specialize in finance, and at the request of the candidates themselves, we have decided to keep their names confidential until the final announcement.”

To ensure that candidates have sufficient time to prepare for the PT and in-depth interviews, the CCRC will hold its next meeting next month. Based on 14 detailed evaluation criteria in four areas, including entrepreneurship, vision and management strategy, and professionalism, each candidate will present and be interviewed in-depth, followed by a vote to select one finalist for chairman.

All outside directors participate in CCRC of Hana Financial Group. It is chaired by outside director Lee Jung-won and outside directors Park Dong-moon, Lee Kang-won, Won Sook-yeon, Lee Jun-seo, Joo Young-seop, Lee Jae-sul, Yoon Shim, and Lee Jae-min serve as members.

Han aran(aran@fntimes.com)