Nexon lowers ante in its new boss’s age

How young can managers these days? Now there is a 27-year-old chief executive here, Seo Won-il. He heads an online computer game developer, Nexon Corp.
He will fill in the post of Jeong Sang-won, 34, who left after his term expired.
Mr. Seo initially worked as an intern for Nexon during summer vacations beginning in 1996, when he was still a freshman in the business administration department at Seoul National University.
He became the part of Nexon in 2000, and rose to the top in just three and a half years.
Nexon developed the first online domestic computer game in Korea, called Kingdom of the Winds. Nexon posted 21 billion won ($18 million) in net profit on 65 billion won of revenues last year.
More recent products are Maypole Story and Crazy Arcade, which are also popular among children.
Mr. Seo has spearheaded several major projects since joining the company, such as establishing local branches in other Asian countries and converting packaged computer games into an online version. He spent his childhood in South America and is fluent in both English and Spanish.
“This is the 10th anniversary of the company. We thought we needed a fresh start,” said a spokeswoman for Nexon. “We need to strengthen marketing overseas. So we paid great attention to Mr. Seo’s experiences in other countries.”
“The computer game business is promising and can generate high added value,” Mr. Seo said. “I want to grow Nexon into a global company by cultivating overseas markets.”

by Ha Ji-yun