Women join Korea Inc. boards but not a whole lot

[SHUTTERSTOCK]

The glass ceiling at Korean companies is showing a few cracks.

According to research agency Leaders Index, 169 companies with assets of at least 2 trillion won will appoint 73 new inside directors and 104 outside directors during this year’s annual general meetings.

While 45 women are expected to be put in the outside director positions, only two -- 2.7 percent -- of the inside directors will be women.

If those appointments go through, companies that have at least one woman as a registered director will increase from 90 in the third quarter of last year to 125.

Women occupying director positions will rise from 8.2 percent in the third quarter of last year to 11.2 percent.

At five companies – Samsung Electronics, SK Innovation, AmorePacific, Posco International and KTB Investment & Securities – women board members will be replaced by other women.

The outside director seat at Samsung Electronics occupied by a woman last year, Seoul National University College of Medicine professor Curie Ahn, will be filled by Han Hwa-jin, a professor at the Korea Institute of Human Resources Development in Science and Technology

At SK Innovation, the outside director seat occupied by Ha Yun-kyoung, a Hongik University chemical engineering professor, will be filled by Park Jin-hei, former Citibank Korea CEO.

AmorePacific will be replacing Kim Gyeong-ja, Catholic University professor of consumer and housing studies, with Choi In-a, a former vice president of the ad agency Cheil Worldwide.

Shim In-sook, president of the Korea Corporate Governance Service, who was the first female member on Posco International’s board, will be giving up her seat to Lee Haeng-hee, Corning Korea president.

Samsung Electronics paid the most to its outside directors, 148 million won ($119,600) a year.

Samsung C&T trailed behind with 136 million won while SK Telecom paid 122 million won.

IT behemoth Naver paid its outside directors 106 million won while Hyundai Motor paid 102 million won.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]