One in Five Executives from 30 Major Groups with Bureaucratic Backgrounds Is Former Prosecutor

Leaders Index Survey... Prosecution, Judges, National Tax Service, Financial Authorities in Order

Among executives from 30 major conglomerates, one in five of the five former government officials is from the prosecution. The conglomerate with the highest proportion of bureaucratic executives is Shinsegae, while Samsung has the largest number of such executives.

On the afternoon of the 6th of last month, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 15th, Leaders Index, a corporate analysis research institute, analyzed the backgrounds of 11,208 executives (registered and unregistered) from 298 companies affiliated with the top 30 domestic asset groups that submitted reports in the first half of the year. It was found that 337 executives, or 3.0% of the total, were former government officials.

Among executives with bureaucratic backgrounds, those from the prosecution are the most numerous. There are 75 executives from the prosecution, accounting for 22.3% of all bureaucratic executives. Among them, 49 are outside directors. The only inside director is Cho Seok-young, head of the Compliance Support Team at Kakao's CA Council.

The remaining 25 prosecution-affiliated executives are all unregistered full-time executives. Samsung Electronics has the most with more than five, followed by Hyundai Motor with four, and Hanwha and KT with three each.

Next in number after the prosecution are former judges, with 53 (15.7%). Among these, 39 are outside directors and 14 are unregistered full-time executives. Eight of them were found to be affiliated with Samsung Electronics’ Legal Office.

Following are the National Tax Service with 38 (11.3%), the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service with 26 (7.7%), the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy with 23 (6.8%), the Ministry of Economy and Finance with 21 (6.2%), the Presidential Office (formerly the Blue House) with 16 (4.7%), and the Fair Trade Commission with 12 (3.6%).

Among the top 30 conglomerates, Shinsegae has the highest proportion of bureaucratic executives. Of its 158 executives, 18 (11.4%) are former government officials. NongHyup also has a high proportion at 9.4% (14 executives). Hanjin (8.8%, 13 executives), CJ (7.4%, 22 executives), HDC (7.3%, 4 executives), and Doosan (7.0%, 13 executives) follow.

The conglomerate with the largest number of bureaucratic executives is Samsung, with 49 executives. The proportion relative to total executives is 2.4%.