Big shot bureaucrat named to lead NongHyup Financial Group

After NongHyup Financial Group announced on Monday it selected Lee Suk-joon, 63, as the new chairman, the news made headlines as Lee is the first former high-ranking official to become a financial group’s head under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

According to the financial group, it held meetings on Monday with the board and shareholders and approved sole candidate Lee as the new chairman.

He will start a two-year term on Jan. 1.

Born in 1959 in the nation’s second-largest city, Lee graduated Donga High School in Busan. After he majored in economics at Seoul National University, Lee studied economics further at ChungAng University’s graduate school. Lee completed an MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US as well.

In 1983 he passed the 26th civil service examination and held a number of key positions in economic ministries including vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT in 2014

Under the Park Geun-hye administration, Lee also served as chief of government policy coordination, working under the prime minister, from 2016 through 2017.

Lee also helped President Yoon's election camp by giving suggestions about economic and financial policy in the early phase of the campaign. He was also a special advisor to Yoon.

His connection with the current president stirred up some mixed responses.

Some of the group’s employees responded positively to Lee’s appointment with some expectation that the firm will be able to grow further as the new chairman is considered an influential figure under the Yoon administration.

Those with concerns say that this appointment might lead to the government’s unnecessary intervention.

Industry insiders initially anticipated the incumbent Chairman Son Byung-hwan, who joined the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in 1990, to continue serving an additional one year as NongHyup Financial Group chairman like many of his predecessors.

The fact that NongHyup Financial Group’s third-quarter net profit jumped 14.4 percent from a year earlier also backed up this initial prediction.

According to the financial holding company, its net income came to 621.2 billion won ($437.7 million) in the July-September period, up from 542.8 billion won a year earlier.

However, National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, which holds a 100-percent stake in NongHyup Financial Group, seems to have selected Lee because he is a pro-Yoon figure, according to industry sources.

Some industry insiders even speculate that the Yoon administration has been influencing the financial group’s appointment process and is against current banking group heads extending their terms.

In this situation, all finance industry insiders’ eyes are now on the upcoming chairman appointment process of other local financial groups like BNK Financial Group and Woori Financial Group.