Senior Executive Vice President Yang Jong-hee of KB Financial Group was named as president of KB Insurance Co., while Senior Executive Vice President Yoon Woong-won of KB Financial Group was nominated as president of KB Kookmin Card.
KB Insurance President-nominee Yang carries on his shoulders a tremendous responsibility of maximizing synergetic effects after KB Financial Group acquired LIG Insurance, the predecessor of KB Insurance, in June 2015.
Yang, born in 1961, is a graduate of Jeonju High School and Seoul National University National History Department. He held such positions as the head of KB Kookmin Bank Financial Report & Control Division, Seocho Station branch chief and the head of the team designed to establish a holding company. He was promoted to senior executive vice president, skipping two steps in the hierarchy, one year after he was promoted to assistant vice president in December 2013. He is said to have groomed as one of heirs-apparent who will succeed KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon Jong-kyu.
Explaining the background of selecting the KB Insurance Co. president-nominee, KB Financial Group said KB Insurance Co. President-nominee Yang has the right stuffs to take the helm at the insurance unit of the financial group since he took such core positions as senior executive vice president in charge of financing, HR and IR at KB Holdings, and he has a wide range of knowledge and insight in banking and non-banking areas as well as a strong leadership.
KB Kookmin Card President-nominee Yoon, born in 1960, is a graduate of Seollin Commercial High School and Hanyang University Business Management Department. He held such major positions in the financing, strategy and management areas as KB Kookmin Bank Chief Financial Officer, strategy and planning division head, and management division chief. Yoon is to take the helm at KM Kookmin Card, coming back one year after he quit in December 2014 over a dispute concerning the replacement of the bank¡¯s main computer. At that time, he was disciplined lightly for his involvement in the matter by the Financial Supervisory Service. Yoon¡¯s return follows former KB Kookmin Bank Vice President Park Ji-woo, who was also involved in the main computer case, who was appointed to be KB Capital president in March 2015.
Former Vice President Kim Ok-chan, who served as president of Seoul Guarantee Insurance, is to be reinstated at KB Holdings.
KB Financial Group Yoon, now two years in office, is expected to brace for a battle to recapture its standing as Korea¡¯s leading bank with a school of KB Kookmin Bank¡¯s old guards returning to management.
KB Holdings held a governance meeting on Dec. 28 and announced president-nominees of the financial group¡¯s eight subsidiaries. They include KB Asset Management President-nominee Lee Hee-kwon; KB Savings Bank President-nominee Kim Young-man; KB Real Estate Trust President-nominee Chung Soon-il; KB Investment President-nominee Park Chung-seon; KB Credit Guarantee President-nominee Oh Hyun-chul; and KB Data System President-nominee Kim Yoon-tae. The eight president-nominees are to be reinstated.
KB Financial Group said KB Financial Group Chairman Yoon, who marks two years in office, has minimized the replacement of the CEOs of the group¡¯s subsidiaries in an effort to stabilize the group¡¯s governance. It said he have recommended the new KB Insurance and KB Kookmin Card presidents-nominees due to the need for having synergetic effects and to brace for uncertainties, after the group¡¯s acquisition of LIG Insurance and reshaping KB Kookmin Card, respectively.
Meanwhile, KB Financial Holdings carried out a reshuffle on Dec. 29, appointing KB Life Insurance Senior Executive Vice President to be executive vice president in charge of strategies at KB Financial Holdings. He takes helm at the Strategy Planning, Synergy Promotion and Financial Planning departments. KB Financial Holdings Executive Vice President Park Jae-hong in charge of strategies has transferred to the newly created Global Strategy Department. Park Tae-young, promoted to executive vice president, is in charge of the newly created Data Analysis Department and Future Financing Department.
KB Kookmin Bank appointed two new vice presidents. Executive Vice President Huh In of Management and Planning Group has been appointed to be vice president of the Business Group, while Executive Vice President Jun Kui-sang of the Corporate Financing Group was promoted to vice president in charge of Corporate Investment Bank.