DB Group vice chairman expands her scope via new ad agency

Kim Joo-won. [Courtesy of DB Group]

Kim Joo-won, vice chairman and the eldest daughter of DB Group founder and former chairman Kim Jun-ki, has expanded her management involvement in the conglomerate with her role in a new in-house advertising agency.

According to sources on Thursday, DB Group recently founded its internal advertising agency, DB Communications, with Vice Chairman Kim as the only major shareholder from the owner family.

DB Communications aims to enhance its presence in the global advertising market starting with various DB Group advertisements such as those for DB Insurance and DB Life. Given the financial affiliates’ significant presence in the advertising sector, the agency is expected to grow in scale rapidly.

DB Communications’ primary shareholder is DB Inc., the holding company of DB Group, which holds nearly half of the shares in the agency. The second and third largest shareholders are reported to be DB Global Chip and Kim Joo-won herself, each with approximately 20 percent of the ownership.

The new subsidiary is also DB Global Chip’s maiden involvement in the conglomerate’s ownership structure. DB Global Chip is a fabless semiconductor design business that was spun off from DB HiTek and in March 2023, DB HiTek conducted a corporate split to transition into a pure-play foundry company, separating its chip design business into a subsidiary.

Kim Joo-won’s presence within the DB Group has been growing since her appointment as group vice chairman in 2022. Born in 1973, Kim is a graduate of Seoul Arts High School and Yonsei University while currently holding a 9.87 percent stake in DB Inc. and 0.39 percent in DB HiTek.

Since becoming vice chairman of DB Group, Kim has been driving the conglomerate’s overseas expansion efforts and has been actively leading the charge for the group’s entry into the Vietnamese financial sector this year. To facilitate the expansion, DB Group recently entered an MOU for strategic cooperation in various fields with Vietnam’s T&T Group. DB Insurance has also been expanding its local influence by acquiring VNI, ranked 10th in the Vietnamese insurance industry, in February 2023.