Lee Young-joo, director of LX International

LX International has appointed the first female executive in its 71-year history.

After its regular year-end executive reshuffle on Tuesday, the Korean trading firm said that Lee Young-joo, head of its human resources department, has become one of its five newly appointed directors.

Born in 1976, Lee joined the company in 2000 when it was an LG Group subsidiary. In 2021, LG Group hived off some affiliates for LX Group Chairman Koo Bon-joon, a grandson of the late LG Group founder Koo In-hwoi and an uncle of LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo.

Lee was also the first woman to lead the trading firm's overseas branch in 2015, when she was appointed the chief representative of LG International's Almaty office in Kazakhstan, based on her studies at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia.

"Considering uncertainties surrounding domestic and international economic environments, we appointed leaders with extensive experience and expertise," an LX International official said.

In 2022, LX International also appointed Sohn's Market Makers CEO Sohn Lan as its first female outside director in an apparent attempt to cope with a partial amendment to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act in 2020.

The law mandates that a listed company with total assets of at least 2 trillion won ($1.4 billion) must not have an all-male or all-female board and should comply with this requirement within two years from the effective date of the amendment.

At that time, however, LX International attributed Sohn's appointment to her knowledge of the North American market.