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Shinsegae appoints 32 new executives, including first woman CEO

Published: 26 Sep. 2025, 17:36 Updated: 26 Sep. 2025, 18:48

Shinsegae Department Store in Myungdong, central Seoul is seen on Dec. 26, 2024. [YONHAP]

Shinsegae Group announced its 2026 regular executive appointments, marking its first large-scale reshuffle since Chairman Chung Yong-jin and Shinsegae President Chung Yu-kyung declared plans to split the group into two divisions — Emart and department store — last year.

The heads of underperforming affiliates, including construction and duty-free businesses, were replaced, and a significant number of executives born in the 1980s were promoted — signaling a clear focus on performance and generational change.

Shinsegae Group said its top priorities with the reshuffle were overcoming current challenges and regaining competitiveness, emphasizing a stronger commitment to performance-based evaluations.

Of the 32 new executives, 14 of them, or about 43 percent, are in their 40s, raising the proportion of executives in their 40s across the group to 16 percent — double that of the previous team.

At Gmarket, CEO Chung Hyung-kwon was replaced after about a year in the post. James Jang, born in 1985 and an e-commerce expert with prior management experience at Alibaba’s Southeast Asia platform Lazada, was tapped to lead the company. He will head Gmarket as a subsidiary of the joint venture between Shinsegae Group and Alibaba International.

[SHINSEGAE GROUP]

Shinsegae International, the group's fashion and beauty affiliate, will see Kim Deok-joo, head of its global fashion division, take over the CEO position from William Kim. The cosmetics division has been split into two, with Seo Min-sung, born in 1980, named CEO of Division 1, and Lee Seung-min, born in 1985, named CEO of Division 2.

Seo previously led beauty innovation strategies at Shinsegae Department Store and Shinsegae International.

Lee, who had overseen the group’s beauty brands, such as Vidivici and Amuse, became the group’s first-ever female CEO.

Lee Seock-koo, formerly CEO of Shinsegae Live Shopping, was appointed to lead Shinsegae DF, the group’s duty-free affiliate. Having also served as CEO of Chosun Hotels and Starbucks Korea, Lee is tasked with improving the duty-free business, which posted operating losses in the first and second quarters of this year.

Other appointments include Lim Hyeong-seop, previously in charge of B2B operations, as the new head of Shinsegae Food, and Choi Taek-won, head of Emart’s sales division and a supply chain management expert, as the new CEO of SSG.com, the group’s e-commerce unit.

Park Joo-hyung, CEO of Shinsegae Central, left, and Stanley Moon, CEO of the group’s venture capital arm Signite Partners and Shinsegae Central, right [SHINSEGAE GROUP]

Park Joo-hyung, CEO of Shinsegae Department Store, and Stanley Moon, CEO of the group’s venture capital arm Signite Partners, were both promoted from executive vice president to president.

Park was recognized for his leadership in launching House of Shinsegae and Suite Park at the Gangnam branch. He will concurrently serve as CEO of Shinsegae Central to identify future growth engines.

Moon, who is also Chung Yu-kyung’s husband, will concurrently lead Shinsegae Live Shopping to enhance synergy in the group’s online businesses.

This year’s reshuffle was carried out about a month earlier than last year's. Shinsegae Group said that it had decided to move up the appointments to respond swiftly to challenges in a rapidly changing business environment, and that it would focus on strengthening its core competitiveness under this new performance-driven leadership.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY NOH YU-RIM [[email protected]]