Former Kia executive director Kim Woo-joo has moved to KakaoBank as head of the global division. Kim, the new Deputy Minister, is regarded as a "strategic planning expert" who worked for a long time in the corporate strategy office at Hyundai Motor Group.
According to the financial sector on Jan. 9, Deputy Minister Kim began reporting to work as KakaoBank's head of the global division on the 1st of this month. Deputy Minister Kim is said to have left Kia at the end of last year.
Deputy Minister Kim, born in 1971, served as executive director of Kia's global business management division and as head of Planning and Coordination Office 1 in the corporate strategy office at Hyundai Motor Group.
Deputy Minister Kim spent about 30 years at Hyundai Motor Group and elsewhere overseeing global and future businesses, building expertise in strategic investment, planning, and governance. Kim led investment and business expansion in the North American market, including establishing the U.S. investment holding company "HMG Global" for Hyundai Motor Group and handling the acquisition and merger (M&A) of the robotics manufacturer "Boston Dynamics."
A KakaoBank official said, "Deputy Minister Kim is an expert who has built expertise in the field by leading global M&A and investment business expansion at Hyundai Motor Group," adding, "Kim is the right person with the capabilities to successfully execute the global projects that KakaoBank is pursuing and to accelerate business expansion."
KakaoBank is pushing overseas expansion in various ways, including an equity investment in the Indonesian digital bank "Superbank," participation in establishing the Thai virtual bank "Bank X," and signing a business agreement with Mongolia's MCS Group.