Yang Jong-hee named new chairman of KB Financial Group

Yang Jong-hee

KB Financial Group named Yang Jong-hee as the new chief of the company, the group’s Chairman Recommendation Committee announced Friday.

Yang, currently KB Financial Group’s vice chairman, was up against Hur Yin, also a vice chairman at the group and Kim Byung-ho, chairman of Ho Chi Minh City-based HDBank, who was a vice chairman at Hana Financial Group before starting his career in Vietnam.

KB Financial Group is the largest financial company in Korea by net profit.

The committee, which is made up of the board directors, made the announcement more than a month after it announced on July 20 that nominations for the KB Financial Group's next CEO had begun.

Yoon Jong-kyoo, the group's current chairman, said in August he would not seek a fourth term.

The committee took into consideration five factors: work experience and expertise, leadership, morality, sharing of KB Financial Group’s vision and perspectives, and ability to soundly manage the company in the short and long terms.

The contenders in the shortlist went through two hours of intensive interviews.

“Yang Jong-hee is a competent candidate who will succeed Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo to create KB Finance’s new future and sustainable growth,” the committee said in a statement.

“He is a candidate with a high level of knowledge in digital, global and ESG (environmental, social, governance) management, not to mention expertise in banking and non-banking sectors based on his experience at the holding company, bank and other affiliated companies.”

“We focused on fair competition of internal and external candidates based on independence, fairness and transparency as the core values,” said the committee in a statement. “KB will continue to succeed and develop such management procedure.”

It added that Yang’s leadership and future vision or KB Financial Group were evaluated highly.

“I’m grateful to the committee for giving me an opportunity, and I feel a great sense of duty, though I’m yet a candidate,” Yang said. “I’ll do my best for KB Financial Group to become the standard of a financial company respected both in the market and society.”

Yang will be recommended as the next chairman at the board meeting to be held in November.

Yoon’s term is slated to end on Nov. 20,

Yang studied history at Seoul National University and was the CEO of KB Insurance from 2016 through 2020. He played a major role in KB Financial Group’s acquisition of LIG Insurance Company in 2015, said KB.

The group added that he showed a high level of competence while overseeing insurance, digitization, asset management businesses while serving as a vice chairman since 2021.

KB Financial Group’s stock price inched down 0.18 percent on Friday to close at 54,100 won ($41).

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]