Min Hee-jin's First Official Appearance After CEO Dismissal... Will She Mention HYBE Conflict in Public Lecture?

On the 27th, 2024 Hyundai Card Da Vinci Motel Speaker
Delivers 100-Minute Lecture Twice as Long as Other Speakers

Former ADORE CEO Min Hee-jin will give a public lecture amid conflicts with the parent company HYBE.

Min Hee-jin, former CEO of ADOR.

On the 27th, Min will attend as a speaker at the ‘2024 Hyundai Card Da Vinci Motel’ held in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. ‘Da Vinci Motel’ is a cultural convergence program where icons from various fields such as art, academia, management, and technology meet through talks, performances, exhibitions, and busking.

Min’s lecture will start at 9 PM. She will speak for 100 minutes under the theme ‘Min Hee-jin’s Freestyle: The Producer Breaking the Formula of K-pop.’ Currently, Min is engaged in a truth dispute with HYBE, ADORE’s parent company, over various issues including her reinstatement as CEO and producing activities for NewJeans after her dismissal.

Since the conflict triggered by HYBE’s audit in April, Min has drawn attention with her characteristic blunt speech in two press conferences. Afterwards, NewJeans, an idol group under ADORE, made an emergency broadcast requesting Min’s reinstatement as CEO.

This lecture marks Min’s first public appearance since NewJeans’ statement. Public attention is focused on what Min will say. As the final speaker of the Storage Talk Concert, Min will take the stage. She is the only representative from K-pop entertainment invited as a speaker. The 100-minute lecture time, nearly twice as long as other speakers, also draws attention.

View of HYBE headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, ADORE held a board meeting on the 27th of last month and appointed Kim Ju-young, HYBE’s Chief Human Resources Officer, as the new CEO. At that time, ADORE stated, "Min Hee-jin will step down as CEO but will retain her position as an inside director of ADORE and continue to handle producing duties for NewJeans."

However, Min’s side opposed this, calling it a unilateral dismissal decision by HYBE. Min’s side claimed, "The dismissal decision is illegal as it directly violates the shareholder agreement and the injunction prohibiting the exercise of voting rights," and that the notification to continue producing duties was unilaterally imposed.

Subsequently, on the 11th, NewJeans conducted an emergency live broadcast on YouTube, demanding that HYBE and Chairman Bang Si-hyuk reinstate Min as ADORE’s CEO by the 25th. On the 13th, Min filed an injunction at the Seoul Central District Court requesting the convening of an emergency shareholders’ meeting of ADORE and her reappointment as an inside director.

ADORE stated on the 25th, the deadline requested by NewJeans, "We have already offered Director Min Hee-jin to take charge of NewJeans’ producing for the next five years. Five years is the entire remaining contract period with NewJeans," and added, "Regarding the demand for reinstatement as CEO, it was discussed that it is currently not acceptable."

In response, Min said, "There was no sincere offer at all. There was no genuine proposal such as deleting numerous toxic clauses including unilateral termination rights that were in the draft. The expression ‘compromise proposal’ is just wordplay," demanding reinstatement as CEO.

All eyes are on what Min Hee-jin, who rejected ADORE’s compromise and repeatedly demanded a ‘sincere’ compromise and reinstatement as CEO, will say in this lecture. Tickets for the event are currently sold out.