Woori Financial Group Holds Subsidiary CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee
Sung Daekyu and Kwak Heepil Nominated as CEOs of Tongyang Life and ABL Life
On May 16, Woori Financial Group announced that it had convened its Subsidiary CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee (the “Committee”) and recommended Sung Dae-kyu as the candidate for CEO of Tongyang Life Insurance, which is scheduled to be incorporated as a new subsidiary, and Kwak Hee-pil as the candidate for CEO of ABL Life Insurance.
Sung Dae-kyu, the candidate recommended for CEO of Tongyang Life Insurance, was born in 1967. He graduated from the Department of Economics at Hanyang University and earned a master’s degree in business administration from Hanyang University Graduate School. He entered public service through the 33rd Higher Civil Service Examination and has served as Director of Insurance at the Financial Services Commission and as Secretary-General of the Public Fund Oversight Committee.
He later served as the 11th President of the Korea Insurance Development Institute in 2016 and was appointed CEO of Shinhan Life Insurance in 2019, where he led the acquisition of Orange Life. In 2021, he successfully oversaw the merger of Shinhan Life and Orange Life, serving as the inaugural CEO of the integrated Shinhan Life. Since September of last year, he has joined Woori Financial Group as head of the life insurance acquisition team, playing a key role in the acquisition of Tongyang Life and ABL Life.
The Committee highly praised Sung Dae-kyu as a traditional insurance expert, citing his broad insights into the insurance industry, his innovative mindset based on principles and conviction, and his successful experience as CEO of an insurance company under a financial group. The Committee assessed him as the optimal candidate to lead the ongoing growth and change management of the group’s insurance subsidiaries.
Sung Dae-kyu stated, “My top priority is to ensure that Tongyang Life Insurance quickly establishes itself as a core insurance subsidiary of Woori Financial Group based on solid capital management. With the addition of Tongyang Life following Woori Investment & Securities, we have laid the foundation for Woori Financial Group to become a comprehensive financial group, and I will do my best to contribute to diversifying the group’s profit portfolio.”
Kwak Hee-pil, the candidate recommended for CEO of ABL Life Insurance, was born in 1966. He graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Korea University and joined Ssangyong Cement in 1993. In 2001, he moved to ING Life Insurance (renamed Orange Life in 2018) as an FC at the Dogok branch, marking the start of his insurance sales career. Recognized for his outstanding sales performance, he was promoted to branch manager, head of sales promotion, and later became Executive Vice President of the FC Channel Headquarters and Sales Channel Headquarters. In 2021, when Orange Life merged with Shinhan Life to launch Shinhan Life, he served as Executive Vice President of the FC1 Business Group and later became CEO of Shinhan Financial Plus GA, a Shinhan Life subsidiary.
The Committee highly valued Kwak Hee-pil’s expertise as a sales leader with over 20 years of insurance sales experience, as well as his management ability demonstrated by successfully integrating systems and processes between Orange Life and Shinhan Life during his tenure as Executive Vice President of the Sales Channel Headquarters in 2019. Based on this experience and achievements, the Committee assessed him as the optimal candidate to lead ABL Life Insurance’s key task of implementing the CPC (Customer, Product, Channel) strategy to improve product and sales competitiveness.
Kwak Hee-pil stated, “Based on my career and expertise in the insurance industry, I will ensure the stable integration of ABL Life Insurance into Woori Financial Group. I will exercise inclusive leadership to swiftly resolve various management issues and achieve organizational stability at ABL Life Insurance, which has been in a prolonged state of sale since 2016.”
The Committee explained, “After receiving approval from the Financial Services Commission on May 2 for the incorporation of the life insurance companies as subsidiaries, we promptly completed the acquisition procedures and held the Committee to recommend new CEO candidates for each insurance company in order to establish a stable management foundation.”
Meanwhile, Sung Dae-kyu and Kwak Hee-pil, who have been recommended by the Committee, are expected to be officially appointed as CEOs of Tongyang Life Insurance and ABL Life Insurance following their approval at the respective shareholders’ meetings scheduled for early July.
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