Kang Jeong-gu, the chief of Samsung Securities, known as the 'legendary PB (private banker)' for receiving a higher salary than the heads of securities firms since 2018, will retire.
According to the industry on the 10th, Chief Kang is expected to work at Samsung Securities until the end of this month. Ahead of his scheduled retirement early next year, he recently informed acquaintances of his intention to retire.
Born in 1966, Chief Kang started his career at Daegu Daedong Bank after graduating from the Department of Economics at Korea University and the Graduate School of Business Administration at the same university in 1990. He subsequently moved to Samsung Investment Trust in 1998 and settled at Samsung Securities in 2000. Until last year, he served as the PB sales branch manager at the Samsung Town Financial Center WM (asset management) branch, managing dozens of trillions of won for ultra-high net worth individuals and executives of large corporations.
Chief Kang is famous as the highest-paid individual in the securities industry. Last year, he received a salary of 71 million won, and with a bonus of 9.231 billion won and other labor income of 21 million won, he received a total of 9.324 billion won in compensation. He earned 7.7 billion won more than CEO Park Jong-moon (1.591 billion won), becoming known as a PB with a salary higher than that of a president.
Chief Kang has been regarded as the 'king of salaries among securities firms' since 2018. Starting with 1.623 billion won in 2018, he received 2.021 billion won in 2019, and since 2020, he has consistently received a salary around 5 billion won. Over the past seven years, his cumulative earnings have reached 34.75 billion won.
Samsung Securities explained the reason for Chief Kang's high bonus, stating, "He contributed to increasing customer revenue through proactive investment proposals on promising domestic and international industries and companies based on leading insights into changes in global market trends."