CJ Group to realign executive levels with younger faces

South Korea’s food to entertainment conglomerate CJ Group is expected to announce a major year-end reshuffle at the top executive level on Thursday that may bring back the disgraced heir-in-waiting to command amid ailing health conditions of the chairman.

CJ Group is said to have named Choi Eun-seok, head of management strategy office at the group’s holding entity CJ Corp., as flagship food unit CJ CheilJedang Corp.’s chief executive officer. Kang Sin-ho, CJ CheilJedang’s current CEO will likely transfer to head CJ Logistics Corp. The entertainment unit CJ ENM Co. is expected to have Kang Ho-seong, head of management support at CJ Corp. and CJ ENM, as new CEO. Jeong Seong-pil, CJ Foodville CEO, will likely move to lead food distributor CJ Freshway.

CJ Group is expected to make a formal announcement later Thursday, at the earliest. It has not said whether Lee Sun-ho, the eldest son of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun and the heir-in-waiting of the group, will join the top executive team after his drug smuggling scandal about a year ago.

The group, the country’s 14th largest conglomerate, would become the latest among big Korean companies to make a generation shift in the top management team and fill leadership posts based on performance regardless of age.

Choi Eun-seok, 53 years old, is known to be the group chairman’s key man for strategy and finance. He reportedly led the group’s partnership deal with Naver and CJ CheilJedang’s acquisition of U.S frozen food company Schwan’s.

Kang Sin-ho, who is known as the chairman’s right-hand man, is credited for leading CJ CheilJedang to achieve the best sales record this year.

Kang Ho-seong, ex-prosecutor and lawyer, has long been floated to head CJ ENM, which faces multiple challenges of a lawsuit regarding TV show scandal and deteriorating sales.

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