The average age of the 122 CEOs at South Korea’s five leading conglomerates is 58.1, according to corporate rating agency CEO Score.
Samsung Electronics` Chairman Lee Kun-hee, left, and Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong in a file photo (Yonhap)
Of all the CEOs at companies affiliated with Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte, LG Group CEOs were the oldest on average at 60.9 years.
Park Jin-soo, LG Chem’s retiring vice chairman and CEO, was the oldest at 66.
Lotte Group had the highest number of CEOs in their 60s with 15, followed by LG with 13, Hyundai with 10, Samsung with five and SK with three.
The youngest CEOs, on average, led affiliates of SK Group.
Kim Kyung-yup, the 48-year-old CEO of Hyundai Information Technology, a unit of Lotte, was the youngest of the 122, followed by Chun Chan-il, 49, of SK affiliate NanoEntek.
The data mirrored that in the US, where the C-suite is generally aging and the average age for CEOs was 58 as of 2017, according to research from Crist Kolder, a Chicago-based executive search firm.
By Lee So-jeong (
xojeong2@heraldcorp.com)
