Kim Hyeong-gi, vice chair and CEO of Celltrion's global sales division and a key contributor at the company's founding, is leaving the company.
Celltrion said on the 6th that Vice Chair Kim Hyeong-gi decided to step down for personal reasons, and it changed the key agenda item on the appointment of inside directors to be handled at the regular shareholders meeting on the 24th.
The main agenda item at this shareholders meeting had been the reappointment of inside directors for Celltrion's co-CEOs, Ki Woo-seong and Kim Hyeong-gi, whose terms expire at the end of March. However, as Vice Chair Kim expressed an intent to step down, the company plans to appoint Shin Min-cheol, head of management at the business division and president, as an inside director in Kim's place after the meeting.
Born in 1965, Vice Chair Kim Hyeong-gi has been a closest aide to Chair Seo Jung-Jin since Celltrion's early days and has long worked in tandem with Seo and Vice Chair Ki Woo-seong.
Both Vice Chair Kim and Vice Chair Ki first connected with Seo while working at Daewoo Motor. At the time, Seo served as a management adviser at Daewoo Motor. In 1999, Seo left Daewoo Motor and founded Nexol, the predecessor to Celltrion, and they joined then.
In Celltrion's early years, Vice Chair Kim led strategy and finance and attracted global investment. He is credited with taking the lead as a shield during Celltrion's past accounting controversy. In 2015, he became co-CEO and president of Celltrion alongside Vice Chair Ki Woo-seong, then took office as vice chair and CEO of Celltrion Healthcare, serving as chief financial officer (CFO). When the Celltrion group merged Celltrion and subsidiary Celltrion Healthcare at the end of 2023 to reduce product cost ratios, Vice Chair Kim Hyeong-gi joined the merged entity as an inside director.
Meanwhile, Vice Chair Ki Woo-seong is expected to be reappointed through the shareholders meeting.