Min Hee-jin Forced Dismissal & Kim Ju-young Appointed New CEO
This is an announcement from ADOR.
We held a board meeting on the 27th and appointed Kim Ju-young, an ADOR inside director, as the new CEO.
New CEO Kim Ju-young is an HR expert with experience across various industries and will be responsible for organizational stabilization and internal restructuring at ADOR.
Former CEO Min Hee-jin is stepping down from the CEO position but will retain her position as an ADOR inside director. She will also continue to handle NewJeans’ producing work.
Along with this, ADOR’s internal organization will also separate production and management. This was a multi-label operation principle that had been consistently applied to all other labels, but ADOR had been an exception where the CEO oversaw both production and management.
With this personnel change and organizational restructuring, ADOR plans to spare no support for NewJeans’ growth and greater success.
Thank you.
As ADOR’s CEO changed from Min Hee-jin to Kim Ju-young, Min Hee-jin’s side stated their position, calling it a “unilateral notification.”
On the 27th, a representative from Min Hee-jin’s side told Maeil Business Star Today, “On Saturday the 24th, we were suddenly notified that a board meeting would be held on the 27th regarding the CEO change, and (Min Hee-jin) attended the board meeting by phone,” and claimed, “The dismissal resolution was made unilaterally regardless of Min Hee-jin’s wishes. This is a serious violation of the shareholders’ agreement.”
They added, “The company announced that CEO Min Hee-jin will continue NewJeans’ producing, but this was also a unilateral notification. There was no consultation.”
We found out about the news of our CEO being dismissed through news articles on the same day it happened. Um, it was so sudden and something none of us members had ever imagined, so honestly, it was really hard for us. And we felt extremely bewildered.
As artists under HYBE, that kind of unilateral notification from the company made us certain that, ‘Wow, they really don’t respect us at all.’
And amidst that confusing situation, we heard through our manager that the new CEO wanted to meet and greet us. From the very first action after joining ADOR, we didn’t feel any consideration for us at all.
The new person, Ms. Ju-young, met with us and said things like “for the members,” “considering the members,” and “NewJeans comes first,” but looking at what has happened so far, you can tell that those were just empty words.
To begin with, a week before NewJeans’ comeback, HYBE’s side—far from helping with promotion—released articles about the CEO’s breach of trust and portrayed us, NewJeans, negatively to the outside. I’d like to ask again where exactly in that was anything done for NewJeans.