Kakao's CA council said on the 23rd it will restructure its organization and sharply cut headcount. Kakao said, "Based on the results of strengthening management fundamentals over the past two years since the CA council was formed, this is a restructuring to strengthen execution for full-fledged growth and speed up decision-making."
The CA council will be reorganized from the existing structure of four committees, two divisions and one unit into "three offices and four heads." The direction is to reduce the size, slim down the structure, and raise flexibility. The CA council said, "While enhancing the management system to strengthen the group's centripetal force, we have carried out intensive governance streamlining. Based on the capabilities condensed through this, we intend to make a full-fledged gear shift toward growth."
The three newly established "offices"—the group investment strategy office, the group financial strategy office, and the group human resources strategy office—will focus on supporting areas that require group-level decision-making and execution, such as establishing mid- to long-term investment and financial strategies and advancing the HR system. The head of the group investment strategy office will be Kim Do-young, CEO of Kakao Investment, and the head of the group financial strategy office will be Kakao CFO Shin Jong-hwan, both serving concurrently. The group human resources strategy office will be led by Hwang Tae-seon, the current head representative of the CA council.
Within the group, ESG will be overseen by Kwon Dae-yeol, head of group ESG; PR by Lee Na-ri, head of group PR; PA (public affairs) by Lee Yeon-jae, head of group PA; and the setting and coordination of the direction for compliance management by Jung Jong-uk, head of group compliance management. The heads will remain in the CA council, but their subordinate organizations will be transferred from the CA council to Kakao headquarters to focus on on-site execution, the company said.
The new organizational structure is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 1.