SK Group boss a 30 billion won man

Disgraced SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won dwarfed other chiefs of leading Korean conglomerates as a compensation king, according to the compiled regulatory filings yesterday.

A total of 179 companies in Korea reported for the first time the salaries of about 530 top executives, all serving on boards of directors.

Under a revised capital market law, all companies are required to report the compensation of board members who receive 500 million won ($468,566) or more.

Chey, convicted of misappropriating nearly 46.5 billion won from two SK Group affiliates, took home a total of 30 billion won in compensation last year, as he served on the boards of SK Corporation, SK Innovation, SK C&C and SK Hynix.

That put him as the top earner among executives whose compensations were disclosed yesterday.

Some representatives of the country’s leading corporate giants, such as Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, the chairman’s heir-apparent, were excluded from the disclosure as they don’t serve on boards of directors.

Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo followed Chey with nearly 14 billion won in compensation, including 5.6 billion won from Hyundai Motor. He also received 4.2 billion won from Hyundai Steel and 4.2 billion won from Hyundai Mobis.

The compensation of Samsung executives, which earned the most media attention, were comparatively moderate, with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun taking home 6.77 billion won, according to the company’s annual business report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Shin Jong-kyun, president of the company’s mobile division, was compensated 6.2 billion won last year and Yoon Boo-keun, in charge of consumer electronics, received 51 billion won.

LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo received 4.38 billion won.

Chung Joon-yang, former chairman of Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco, took home 1.95 billion won in compensation last year. Chung abruptly resigned in November.

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Han Dong-woo topped the list of financial executives with compensation of nearly 1.4 billion won. Hana Financial Group’s Chairman Kim Jung-tae, came in second, at 1.3 billion won.

KB Financial Group Chairman Lim Young-rok’s annual compensation last year was nearly 1.2 billion won .

Former Chairman Euh Yoon-dae pocketed 991 million won before passing the reins to his successor.

Woori Financial Group Chairman Lee Soon-woo said he took home 510 million.

However, the figure was only the paycheck he took when he was the president of the financial group’s flagship Woori Bank and did not include the compensation he received as chairman of the financial group when he took the position in June.

His predecessor Lee Pal-seung last year received 1.2 billion won in compensation. Considering that the former chairman’s base salary was 300 million won, the incumbent chairman’s total compensation could end up close to 1 billion won.

Korea Exchange Bank’s former President Yun Yong-ro took home 1 billion won.

Meanwhile, earlier this year the heads of the four financial groups as well as bank presidents agreed to return 30 percent to 40 percent off their annual salary as part of efforts to repair their damaged public images resulting form last year’s money laundering accusations, loan fraud and the recent personal information security breach that affected millions of accounts.

Nonbanking financial company CEOs received heftier paychecks last year than those in banks.

Former Samsung Life Insurance Vice Chairman Park Keun-hee’s annual compensation last year amounted to 2.5 billion won.

Current Samsung Life CEO and former Samsung Fire and Marine Insurance CEO Kim Chang-soo’s annual compensation amounted to nearly 1.9 billion won.

Samsung Securities’ CEO Kim Suk’s salary was just shy of 1.7 billion won.

The son-in-law of Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo and the head of Hyundai Card Chung Tae-young’s annual compensation was 2.6 billion won including the 886 million won he got from Hyundai Commercial.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, KIM JUNG-YOON [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]