Glass ceiling cracks in retail biz
First woman CEO to lead Home plus
The country’s retail industry has been regarded as a place where men dominate despite the majority of its customers being women.
The glass ceiling shows signs of cracking with the appointment of some new female executives.
Home plus said last week it appointed the discount chain’s vice president Lim Il-soon as its new CEO while promoting incumbent CEO Samuel Kim to vice chairman.
The measure made her the first woman CEO of one of the nation’s major retail companies.
“Capabilities always come first in our personnel management. Naturally, more women have to take charge of crucial jobs in discount chains because 80 percent of our customers are women,” said a Home plus executive who asked not to be named.
“Female executives have led our major jobs such as finance, marketing and human resources. The appointment of Lim is not a one-off event but the result of our personnel philosophy, which will continue down the road.”
Lim majored in management at Yonsei University, and then received an MBA there as well. She started her career in the late 1980s by working with various info-tech companies, including Motorola and Compaq.
Lim first joined the retail industry in 1998 working with U.S-based discount retailer COSTCO. She then worked with Buy the Way, a convenience store chain affiliate of 7-Eleven, and Australian Exego Group.
She has also served various key posts, including chief finance and operating officer, at Home plus.
“As far as we know, Lim is the first professional CEO who will lead a company of our size,” the executive said. “With contagious passion and great communications skills, she is expected to create another quantum leap to Home plus.”
As the country’s second-largest discount chain, which private equity fund MBK Partners owns, Home plus chalked up around 8 trillion won ($7.1 billion) in sales last year.
E-Land Group CFO Lee
Earlier in August, another retail outfit E-Land Group named Lee Yun-ju as its first female chief financial officer (CFO). She is supposed to lead the job to set up a holding company.
Of note is that the step also has something to do with MBK Part- ners, although indirectly, as the decision came just after E-Land closed a contract to sell its living brand Modern House to MBK Partners for 713 billion won.
Lotte Group, the country’s leading retail conglomerate, also strives to give opportunities to more women. Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin recently said the group will soon tab a female CEO at one of its affiliates.
Outgoing Home plus CEO
In the meantime, outgoing Home plus CEO Samuel Kim was also appointed to be the company’s vice chairman for his contributions to turning a money-losing firm profitable this year since he took the post in January 2016.
After receiving an MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Kim entered P&G in 1986, and has since spent his career mostly in the company’s international operations.
He was also one of the key members of P&G Korea when it was established in 1989, and served the company’s Korean operation as CEO for five years starting 2003. He joined Home plus as CEO in January 2016.