Kolmar BNH CEO Yewon Yoon Sends Official Letter Opposing Appointment of Seunghwa Lee as CEO

Yewon Yoon Expresses Concerns as Individual Shareholder of Kolmar Holdings

Yewon Yoon, CEO of Kolmar BNH, announced on September 1 that he had submitted an official letter to the holding company, Kolmar Holdings, on August 29, in his capacity as an individual shareholder, opposing the appointment of Seunghwa Lee, former Vice President of CJ Group, as an inside director.

Seunghwa Lee, former Vice President of CJ Group, has been nominated as a candidate for inside director and CEO of Kolmar BNH at the recommendation of Kolmar Holdings.

Donghan Yoon, Chairman of Kolmar Holdings; Sanghyun Yoon, Vice Chairman of Kolmar Holdings; Yewon Yoon, CEO of Kolmar BNH.

In the letter, CEO Yoon stated, "Candidate Seunghwa Lee, during his tenure at CJ CheilJedang, received a written warning and subsequently resigned after a review of the overall management status, including the initiation of the acquisition and subsequent operations, of the overseas subsidiary Batavia, which suffered from poor management." He pointed out, "Such a background disqualifies him from serving as an inside director and CEO."

He further emphasized, "An unreasonable appointment of a director could lead to a loss of value for the company and ordinary shareholders."

Previously, Kolmar BNH had raised questions regarding Seunghwa Lee's management performance. It was claimed that during his time at CJ Group, Lee was forced to step down due to poor management results, and that he directly impacted the group's profitability by causing losses amounting to several hundred billion won during the management of Batavia, which was acquired by CJ CheilJedang in 2021.

In response, Kolmar Holdings stated, "Mr. Seunghwa Lee was not directly involved in the acquisition work (Bioscience, Batavia) in question," and argued, "The claim that delays in normalization were due to a variety of internal and external factors, as explained by CJ during the fact-finding process, is being distorted."

Earlier, at the Kolmar BNH board meeting held on August 29, the proposal to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, which was submitted by Chairman Donghan Yoon as a shareholder proposal, was rejected. The Kolmar BNH board is currently evenly split, with three directors aligned with Chairman Donghan Yoon and CEO Yewon Yoon, and three directors on the side of Kolmar Holdings. The directors from Kolmar Holdings abstained from voting on this agenda item.