FnGuide, a financial information provider, has ended its co-CEO structure after just over two months, shifting to sole management under Jeon Min-seok, a son-in-law of the Hwacheon Group owner family. The structure had paired Jeon with Lee Ki-tae, a professional manager formerly with Samsung Securities.
According to a filing on the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, FnGuide said on the 2nd that Lee had resigned as chief executive for personal reasons, leaving Jeon as sole CEO. Lee also stepped down from his position as an inside director. The co-CEO arrangement, launched in July this year, thus ended after about two months.
With Lee's departure, management reverts to sole leadership by a figure tied to the owner family. Until now, FnGuide had divided roles between an executive from Hwacheon Group, its largest shareholder, and a professional manager from the financial industry.
Jeon, born in 1985, is the son-in-law of Kwon Young-yeol, chairman of Hwacheon Group, which holds Hwacheon Machinery (010660), FnGuide's largest shareholder. Hwacheon Group was involved in a management control dispute in 2024 with the side of Kim Kun-ho, the company's founder and former chief executive. The group secured control of the board at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in October that year, after which Jeon became chief executive, succeeding former CEO Lee Chul-soon.
Concerns were raised, however, that the board of a company whose core business is financial information lacked expertise from the financial industry. FnGuide recruited Lee in March last year through an open search. Lee joined Samsung Securities in 1999 and worked there for about 25 years, serving as head of the pension division and head of the central regional division. Jeon at that time stepped down as chief executive and took on roles including head of the management strategy division.
The company then reappointed Jeon as chief executive in July, establishing the co-CEO structure. Lee handled external sales while Jeon oversaw overall management. With Lee stepping down from both the chief executive and inside director posts, the arrangement dividing management between a professional manager and a representative of the largest shareholder came to an end after just over two months. FnGuide has been reorganized into a structure led solely by Jeon.
