Excluding severance pay, the highest-paid head of a Korean business group last year was Kim Seung-youn, chairman of Hanwha Group, who received 24.8 billion won.
According to business reports disclosed by Hanwha Group affiliates on the 18th, Chairman Kim received a total of 24.841 billion won from five affiliates last year, the most in the business community. He received 5.04 billion won each from Hanwha, Hanwha Aerospace, Hanwha Systems, and Hanwha Solutions, and 4.68 billion won from Hanwha Vision.
That amount is up 77.7% from 13.98 billion won in 2024. The increase was largely due to starting to receive compensation from Hanwha Vision last year. Hanwha said it set the compensation based on Kim focusing on roles such as discovering future growth engines across the group, advising on new businesses including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and supporting businesses through overseas networks.
Including severance pay, Ryu Jin, chairman of POONGSAN Group, received 46.645 billion won, ranking No. 1 in the business community. Ryu stepped down as CEO of Poongsan Holdings when taking office as chairman of The Federation of Korean Industries in 2023. As a result, he received 38.8 billion won in severance last year.
No. 2 after Chairman Kim is Lee Jay-hyun, chairman of CJ Group, with 17.743 billion won. Lee received 13.825 billion won from CJ and 3.918 billion won from CJ CheilJedang. No. 3 is Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group. Chung received 17.461 billion won from three affiliates last year. With his first compensation of 5.4 billion won from Kia, his total compensation increased 51.6% from the previous year.
No. 4 is Cho Hyun-joon, chairman of Hyosung Group (15.735 billion won), and No. 5 is Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Lotte Group (14.993 billion won). However, Shin's total could rise once compensation from Hotel Lotte and Lotte Property & Development is disclosed.
In addition, Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, received 8.25 billion won, and Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group, received 7.127 billion won. Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics, has continued to work without pay since 2017. Doosan Group has not yet released its business report, but Chairman Park Jeong-won received 7.3 billion won in compensation and about 24,000 shares in the first half of last year alone. Those shares are currently worth 29.2 billion won.