iM Financial Group launched its process Monday to select its next chairman.
The group's CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee held a meeting that day and said it had decided to begin the management succession process for selecting the next chief executive.
The committee outlined four guiding principles for the selection: ensuring procedural legitimacy and transparency, broadening the candidate pool and strengthening evaluation fairness, identifying a final candidate with the necessary qualities and capabilities, and reinforcing the committee's independence.
The committee plans to draw up a long list by the end of next month, conduct phased in-depth evaluations, finalize a short list by the end of November, and recommend a final candidate in December.
The current candidate pool managed by iM Financial stands at 15 people — six internal candidates and nine external candidates as of the end of last year.
Chairman Hwang Byung-woo's term expires in March next year. While Hwang has not publicly stated his intention to seek re-election, sources in the financial industry widely expect him to run for another term.
Among external candidates being mentioned is Kwon Gwang-seok, former president of Woori Bank, who had been included in the candidate pool for KB Financial's next chairman.
"We will faithfully carry out the committee's core role to recommend the most suitable candidate to lead the group's successful establishment as a nationwide commercial financial group and drive sustainable growth," said Jo Gang-rae, chair of the recommendation committee.
kbj7653@heraldcorp.com
