Kim Beom-su, Chairman of the Kakao Board of Directors (left), and Namgoong Hoon, newly appointed CEO of Kakao
"Recently, Kakao has been losing the trust of society that it had built up over a long time. I feel a heavy sense of responsibility." In response to the decline in the image of Kakao, which was once a national company, Kim Beom-su, Chairman of the Kakao Board of Directors, made a bold decision. Chairman Kim expressed his determination to overcome the crisis by replacing the leadership to restore trust.
On the 20th, Kakao held a nomination committee meeting and announced the appointment of Namgung Hoon, head of the Future Initiative Center, as the sole CEO. Namgung is expected to be officially appointed as CEO after the shareholders' meeting and board meeting in March. With co-CEO Yeo Min-soo also expressing his intention to step down, Kakao will henceforth be led solely by Namgung.
Last year, Kakao suffered from controversies such as infringing on small business districts, and this year it faced internal turmoil due to moral laxity among its management. Earlier, Ryu Young-jun, CEO of Kakao Pay and previously appointed as co-CEO of Kakao, sparked a 'scam controversy' among Kakao employees by selling a large amount of Kakao Pay shares along with other executives. Eight key executives of Kakao Pay, including CEO Ryu, sold approximately 90 billion KRW worth of Kakao Pay shares on December 10 last year, about a month after Kakao Pay's listing. This led to ongoing controversy within the Kakao community, with the labor union issuing a statement demanding the CEO's resignation.
Subsequently, CEO Ryu expressed his intention to resign, and Kakao responded by establishing stock sale regulations at the community level to manage public opinion. Kakao prohibited executives of affiliated companies from selling shares for one year after listing, and imposed even stricter restrictions on CEOs, limiting sales for two years. However, the internal turmoil continued. Public opinion turned away from Kakao, which had been seen as a friendly national company. Employees within the Kakao community were also unsettled. The worsening sentiment among internal staff likely played a significant role in Chairman Kim's decision. For a platform company where talent such as developers is the core competitive advantage, employee departures pose a serious threat.
In fact, Chairman Kim took steps to calm internal sentiment through a notice sent to employees on the same day. He stated, "I feel a heavy responsibility for the significant loss of social trust that Kakao has accumulated over a long period, and I have repeatedly considered what measures can be taken to recover. I have concluded that both the future-oriented innovation society expects from us and the system implementation currently required of Kakao are necessary."
Namgung has been entrusted with the responsibility of resolving the internal turmoil and discovering new future growth engines. Kakao judged him to be the optimal leader to realize future-oriented values at a time when it must contemplate the next stage of KakaoTalk’s vision.
Namgung was a founding member of Hangame and served as CEO of NHN USA, CJ Internet, and Wemade before joining Kakao in 2015. He then served as co-CEO of Kakao Games, which was launched through the merger of Engine and Daum Games, playing a major role in Kakao Games’ rise as a global comprehensive game company. In December last year, he was appointed head of the Future Initiative Center, an organization preparing for the next 10 years of the Kakao community, and has been preparing for Kakao’s global market expansion and future growth opportunities. Namgung is known to have been ranked as the most preferred leader among Kakao employees in an anonymous workplace community.
Namgung stated, "I will dedicate myself to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management with a strong sense of responsibility to meet society’s expectations of Kakao and restore trust. I will reorganize the business focusing on future technologies such as the metaverse, expand Kakao’s stage globally, and solidify its position as a technology company."
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