Hanwha scion makes finance his proving ground

Kim Dong-won’s place in Hanwha Group’s succession story has become clearer over the past year, even if it remains distinct from that of his brothers.

Rather than competing for the group’s industrial center of gravity, the 40-year-old president and chief global officer of Hanwha Life Insurance is carving out a lane of his own through finance.

That lane may be narrower, but it is hardly small. Hanwha Life sits at the center of what the group presents as Hanwha Finance, linking the insurer with Hanwha General Insurance, Hanwha Asset Management and Hanwha Investment & Securities. For Kim, that gives Hanwha Life significance beyond his title.

It is the clearest platform from which he can build influence, shape a management identity and show how finance can carry more weight inside a group that is still better known for defense, energy and heavy industry.

Born in 1985, Kim studied East Asian studies at Yale University and joined Hanwha in 2014.

His rise has not followed the usual path of an insurance executive built through sales or underwriting. Instead, he came up through digital strategy, companywide innovation and business planning before rising to president in 2023.

That background has shaped the role he is carving out. As president and chief global officer, Kim has become one of the most outward-facing executives in Hanwha Finance, particularly in overseas markets.

The image also fits Hanwha Life’s direction. The insurer has expanded beyond Korea’s mature life insurance market, building local subsidiaries in Vietnam, China, Indonesia, the United States and Japan while also operating representative offices in Japan, the US and the UAE.

That push accelerated last year. Hanwha Life acquired a 40 percent stake in Indonesia’s Nobu Bank, becoming the first Korean insurer to enter overseas banking, and completed the acquisition of US-based Velocity Clearing, the first takeover of a US securities firm by a Korean insurer.

At Abu Dhabi Finance Week in December and again in Davos this year, Kim also emerged as the executive most closely associated with Hanwha’s push into new areas of finance.

The global push is already paying off. Hanwha Life said the new acquisitions lifted last year’s results, with overseas subsidiaries accounting for 14 percent of net profit in 2025, up from 5 percent in 2024. Net profit from overseas operations jumped 170 percent, led by Velocity Clearing, which contributed 47 billion won ($31.7 million) of the total 118 billion won.

Kim’s role in Hanwha Life’s global expansion has not been limited to transactions. Just as important has been the quieter work of building relationships, raising visibility and opening doors for new business.

Indonesia offers the clearest example. Hanwha Life first gained a foothold through the acquisition of Lippo General Insurance in 2023 and later expanded through Nobu Bank. In both deals, Kim’s long-running friendship with Lippo Group CEO John Riady was highlighted as an important factor in building the trust that preceded the investments.

The same logic also helps explain Hanwha Life’s investment in esports, particularly in Vietnam. Since stepping into frontline management in 2018 as head of Hanwha Life’s Future Innovation Division, Kim has placed greater emphasis on younger consumers and future-facing branding. Rather than treating esports as a side project, Hanwha Life has used HLE as a core channel to build visibility in one of its key overseas markets.

An industry official said such global steps stand out among local insurers. “While it is hard to judge the outcome in the short term, the direction itself, pushing further into global business and fintech is meaningful,” the official said, adding that such a move can also be viewed as Kim's efforts to cement his own domain as Hanwha’s third generation is widening its own territory.

The succession question is about more than visibility. Hanwha’s reshuffes over the past year has made clear that eldest brother Kim Dong-kwan, Hanwha Group vice chair, remains closest to the industrial core. Kim Dong-won, by contrast, is emerging as the brother most closely tied to finance.

That is still a meaningful platform. Hanwha Life is the group’s flagship financial affiliate, with 126 trillion won in assets last year and 24.6 trillion won in revenue, accounting for 30 percent of total sales by Hanwha subsidiaries.

It also anchors much of what the group presents as Hanwha Finance, spanning Hanwha Life, Hanwha General Insurance, Hanwha Asset Management and Hanwha Investment & Securities. Hanwha Life holds a 63 percent stake in the general insurer and a full stake in the asset manager.

But Kim’s profile still runs ahead of his ownership. He holds just 0.03 percent of Hanwha Life, a small stake that looks thin against his growing role. That makes the control gap harder to ignore, particularly as industry watchers continue to float the possibility of a separate financial holding company for the group’s finance units.

“The biggest advantage of a shift to a financial holding company is that it broadens the business portfolio and opens new growth avenues,” the industry official said, adding that such a move could become more important as insurers look for fresh opportunities in banking and investment while demographic headwinds from a low birthrate and an aging population weigh on the market.

For now, though, industry watchers see any such separation as a longer-term possibility rather than an imminent step.

“Hanwha Life is too important within the group, and too valuable as a source of cash flow, to be easily spun off right now,” another industry official said. The official added that any future separation would likely be seen less as a pure efficiency move than as a clearer division of roles among the three brothers.