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| Hyundai Card Vice Chairman Chung Tae-young / Courtesy of Hyundai Card |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Chung Tae-young, who has served as the sole leader of Hyundai Motor Group's (HMG) three financial units ― Hyundai Card, Hyundai Capital and Hyundai Commercial ― over the past 14 years, is set to share his burden with three new chief executives, who are supposed to be appointed after each company's board meeting later this month.
The three nominees are Hyundai Card CEO Kim Deok-hwan, Hyundai Capital CEO Mok Jin-won and Hyundai Commercial CEO Lee Byung-hui.
All of them have experience working for other companies, including foreign firms, before joining HMG's financial arms. Kim served as a JPMorgan Chase vice president and a GE Money senior marketing leader. Mok worked for McKinsey & Company and Lee was at MetLife Korea.
Hyundai Card cited the necessity of swift decision-making amid the digitization trend as the main reason for the planned governance reform at the company and its affiliates.
Some industry officials, however, expect the three new CEOs will protect Chung from labor disputes and other unfavorable factors by taking responsibility for personnel matters, risk management and overall operations, so that the vice chairman can focus more on establishing medium- to long-term strategies, such as the initial public offering (IPO) of Hyundai Card. They believe Chung may accelerate efforts to take his company public after the new chief executives are appointed.
But Hyundai Card denied such possibilities, saying the vice chairman will not avoid his duty to handle labor issues because the planned governance reform will impose heavier responsibilities on each chief executive.
"Our company and affiliates are involved in talks with the unions based on the principle of good faith," its spokesman said.
After workers formed unions at all three financial units of HMG last year, Chung has faced conflicts with union members, who alleged in February that the vice chairman had conducted unfair labor practices by avoiding collective bargaining.
Last month, the unions held a meeting with Rep. Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea to demand the lawmaker to keep Chung from holding the chief executive positions of the three companies concurrently. They also asked Park to summon Chung to a National Assembly audit later this year and scrutinize his salary, which reached 4.5 billion won ($4 million) last year, the highest among those of incumbent financial firm CEOs here.
After the meeting, the lawmaker's office began to review a revision of the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies, which allows executives of credit financial firms to hold multiple seats concurrently.
The disputes involving Chung have been mentioned as potential risks to the envisioned listing of Hyundai Card, although the company has reiterated its stance that nothing has been decided regarding the IPO.
