SEOUL, December 29 (AJP) - Woori Financial Group’s executive candidate recommendation committee has nominated incumbent Chairman Lim Jong-ryong as the group’s next chairman.
Committee Chair Lee Kang-haeng said at a media briefing on Monday that Lim was credited with completing the group’s full-service financial portfolio by entering the securities business and acquiring an insurance company during his tenure.
Lee said Lim also strengthened Woori’s financial stability and boosted shareholder return policies that more than doubled the group’s market capitalization.
“Chairman Lim’s three years in office were highly rated by committee members,” Lee said.
Since taking office as Woori chairman in 2023, Lim has expanded the group’s nonbank operations, relaunched its securities and insurance units, and strengthened internal controls in line with government financial policy, while promoting so-called productive finance.
In November, he also led the integration of alumni associations for retired employees of Commercial Bank and Hanil Bank, predecessors of Woori Bank, eliminating a source of internal factional conflict for the first time in 26 years.
If approved at Woori Financial’s regular shareholders meeting in March, Lim would begin a new three-year term as chairman.
According to the committee, Woori’s key challenges include strengthening its securities and insurance subsidiaries to establish itself as a top-tier comprehensive financial group and preparing systematically for the artificial intelligence and stablecoin era to secure a market-leading position.
Lim, born in 1959, began his career at the former Ministry of Finance and Economy, later serving as director of financial policy, director-general of economic policy and head of the planning and coordination office at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. During the 2009 global financial crisis, he served as senior secretary for economic and financial affairs at Cheong Wa Dae.
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