[Exclusive] Professor Kim Sewan Appointed as New President of the Capital Market Research Institute

Scheduled for Resolution at the Capital Research Institute General Assembly

Yonhap News

Professor Kim Se-wan from the Department of Economics at Ewha Womans University has been nominated as the next president of the Korea Capital Market Institute (KCMI).

According to the financial investment industry on the 21st, the KCMI Candidate Recommendation Committee (CRC) completed the final interview the day before and decided on Professor Kim as the new president. After the CRC selects the final candidate through document screening and interviews, the appointment is finalized by a resolution at the general meeting of members, which functions as the board of directors.

A financial investment industry official stated, "The person selected by the KCMI CRC must be approved at the general meeting of members to be confirmed. The general meeting is planned to be conducted in writing within this month."

Professor Kim is currently serving as a professor in the joint program of Economics and Behavioral Socioeconomics at Ewha Womans University, researching financial economics. He graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees from Yonsei University and earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Texas A&M University in the United States. After working as a professor at California State University, he moved to Ewha Womans University.

Professor Kim is well known as a scholar studying the relationship between financial markets and macroeconomics, investor behavior in financial markets, and asset pricing theory. It is expected that he will bring a new perspective to the Korea Capital Market Institute, which has a high proportion of experts from capital markets and financial finance backgrounds.

Some view that the KCMI could be embroiled in parachute appointment controversies. The KCMI CRC began the recruitment process for the next president in September and closed the document submission. Although interviews with other candidates were conducted, the recruitment process was suddenly halted.

Without any special reason, KCMI posted a notice on November 1st to proceed with the document submission process for the next president. After closing the candidate document submission on the 8th, a new president was decided in about two weeks. This has led to criticism that the fairness and transparency of this recruitment process were compromised.

Originally, KCMI appointed presidents through internal recommendation, but each time, parachute appointment controversies arose. Therefore, in 2021, the recommendation method was abolished, and the next president has been decided through a recruitment process. The current president, Shin Jin-young, was appointed through the first recruitment process.

The new president is expected to hold an inauguration ceremony internally as early as the end of this month and officially begin work. President Shin Jin-young will hold a retirement ceremony at the end of this month and return to a university professorship.