A new study has revealed that chief executive officers with management and finance backgrounds are increasingly taking the helm at South Korea’s largest corporations. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) — A new study has revealed that chief executive officers with management and finance backgrounds are increasingly taking the helm at South Korea’s largest corporations, while those with technical expertise are becoming less common in the boardroom.
According to data released on Wednesday by CEO Score, a corporate research firm, the proportion of CEOs with technical or research backgrounds at the nation’s top 500 companies by market capitalization has fallen to 28.4%, a decrease of 3.4 percentage points from three years ago when it stood at 31.8%.
The study, which analyzed the career backgrounds of CEOs at 470 of these top firms, also found that executives with production or procurement experience have declined to 3.3%, down 1.3 percentage points from 4.6% three years ago.
Meanwhile, so-called “managerial CEOs” with backgrounds in management and finance now make up nearly half of all chief executives, with their share increasing by 2.9 percentage points from 46.9% to 49.8% over the same period.
“This trend contrasts with global corporate giants that are increasingly putting engineers in leadership roles to align with advanced technology trends in artificial intelligence and robotics,” a representative from CEO Score noted.
The shift toward managerial CEOs is even more pronounced among conglomerates with assets exceeding 5 trillion won. Among these larger business groups, the percentage of CEOs with technical backgrounds has plummeted 4.6 percentage points to just 16.2%, while those with management and finance backgrounds have increased by 5 percentage points to 58.6%.
Although smaller companies outside major conglomerate groups maintain a higher proportion of technically-trained CEOs at 39.9%, this figure still represents a decline of 2.1 percentage points over three years.
The trend is also reflected in the educational backgrounds of these executives. The percentage of CEOs who majored in business or economics increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 27.3% three years ago to 29.9% today. Conversely, the proportion of leaders with electrical and electronic engineering degrees fell from 7.9% to 6.8%, mechanical engineering from 4.6% to 4.2%, and industrial engineering from 3.2% to 2.7%.
The study also found that 46.0% of CEOs graduated from South Korea’s prestigious “SKY” universities — Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University. Seoul National University alumni account for nearly half of this group at 22.5%, followed by Yonsei University (12.7%) and Korea University (10.8%).
The average age of CEOs at these companies has increased to 59.6 years, up 1.2 years from the average of 58.4 recorded three years ago.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
