"Expecting Leadership in Strengthening Digital Competitiveness"
The Korea Women Entrepreneurs Association stated in a commentary on the 23rd, "We sincerely welcome the nomination of Hansung Sook, a businesswoman, as the first Minister of SMEs and Startups in the Lee Jaemyung administration."
The association said, "Hansung Sook is one of the first-generation IT experts in Korea and is the first female CEO of Naver, having led digital platform-based industries such as simple payment and e-commerce. We believe she is the right person to lead the digital transformation and innovative growth of women-led businesses."
The association added, "The community of women entrepreneurs expects Hansung Sook to use her experience and insight accumulated in the field, as well as her uniquely detailed and inclusive leadership, to help overcome the difficulties faced by women-led businesses, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners, amid sluggish domestic demand and an unstable internal and external environment. We also hope she will actively drive the strengthening of digital competitiveness."
Hansung Sook graduated from the Department of English Language and Literature at Sookmyung Women’s University in 1989 and began her career as a journalist at the computer-specialized magazine Mincom. She then served as PR team leader at Nanum Technology, joined Empas as a founding member in 1997, and, as head of the search business division, introduced Korea’s first "open search" service, which allowed users to search materials from other portal sites.
In 2007, she moved to NHN, the predecessor of Naver, where she served as Head of Service Division 1 and Executive Director of Service, playing a leading role in Naver’s growth. She was recognized for her achievements, such as pioneering partial monetization of webtoons for the first time in the industry and launching the simple payment service Naver Pay, and became the first female CEO in 2017. After serving as CEO for five years until 2022, she took on the role of Head of European Business Development and has been serving as an advisor since this year.
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