Executives Receiving Tens of Billions in Compensation Despite Company’s Trillions-Won Losses

Vice Chairman Park Ji-won, Former CEO Cho Gye-hyun, and 28 Others
Annual Salaries Increased Despite Growing Deficit

Despite the company posting losses of several hundred billion won last year, nearly 30 owners and professional managers received high-value compensation worth tens of billions of won.

On the 21st, an analysis of the 2023 fiscal year business reports, including total executive compensation, by Chaebol.com revealed that 28 owners and professional managers received more than 1 billion won in compensation from companies that posted losses exceeding 100 billion won (separate basis) last year.

Park Ji-won, Vice Chairman of Doosan Group, received 2.58 billion won in compensation despite Doosan Enerbility, where he serves as CEO, posting a loss of 104.2 billion won last year. Previously, when the loss reached 1.2 trillion won in 2022, Vice Chairman Park received a total of 3.17 billion won in salary and bonuses.

In particular, Park also served as an unregistered executive at Doosan Co., Ltd., which posted a loss of over 100 billion won last year, receiving 2.914 billion won, bringing his total compensation from the two loss-making companies to 5.494 billion won.

Cho Gye-hyun, former CEO of Kakao Games, received 2.005 billion won in compensation even though the company's losses increased from 69.3 billion won in 2022 to 459.5 billion won last year. Cho's total compensation actually increased from 1.825 billion won in 2022.

Additionally, Park Kwan-ho, Chairman of the Board at Wemade, received 1.6 billion won in compensation, which was not significantly different from the 1.605 billion won he received in 2022, despite the company's losses increasing substantially from 150.8 billion won in 2022 to 205.8 billion won in 2023.

Other executives such as Heo Min-hoe, CEO of CJ CGV; Jeong Ho-young, CEO of LG Display; Kim Ki-byeong, Chairman of Lotte Tour Development; and Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, also received high-value compensation exceeding 1 billion won despite their companies posting losses exceeding 100 billion won for two consecutive years.