Lee Jae-geun (이재근), a division head at KB Financial Group, was selected as the final candidate for the group’s next chairman. Yang Jong-hee (양종희), the incumbent chairman who led record results, had widely been seen as the likely choice for a second term, but the KB Financial Chairman Candidate Selection Committee opted for “change and generational turnover” over “stability”. The committee judged Lee, who has experience across banking and non-banking businesses after serving as KB Kookmin Bank chief and a holding company division head, to be the right person to create new growth engines for KB Financial.

The committee said on Thursday it selected Lee as the final candidate for the next chairman.

It conducted in-depth interviews lasting 2 hours per candidate with three shortlisted finalists narrowed down on Aug. 27: Kwon Kwang-seok (권광석), former head of Woori Bank, Yang, and Lee.

Committee members evaluated the candidates based on five categories and 25 detailed criteria, including work experience and expertise, leadership, ethics, sharing KB Financial Group’s vision and values, and efforts toward sound management over the short and long term. They then picked Lee in a final vote. Lee is set to be appointed chairman and CEO at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Nov. 20.

Record results but a bet on ‘change’ - Lee beats incumbent chairman

The financial sector had initially widely expected Yang to win a second term.

During Yang’s tenure, KB Financial repeatedly set new record highs and reinforced its position as the leading financial group. Its performance momentum continued this year as well, with first-half net profit of 3.8846 trillion won.

The committee’s decision, however, leaned toward “change” rather than “continuity of performance”. It judged that new leadership was needed to respond to changes in the financial environment ahead, including financial industry restructuring and money moving into capital markets, rather than resting on current results.

Committee Chairman Hwa-joon Cho (조화준) explained the choice, saying, “This is a time when bold change and generational turnover are needed to strengthen the group’s fundamental competitiveness and secure future growth engines, rather than staying with the current strong performance.”

Lee’s broad experience spanning both banking and non-banking businesses appears to have been rated highly.

Lee joined Housing & Commercial Bank in 1993 and served as head of the financial planning department and as chief financial officer at KB Financial Group. In that process, he participated in acquisitions of LIG Insurance, Hyundai Securities and Woori Financial, and is regarded as one of the figures who led the build-out of KB Financial’s current non-banking portfolio.

He later moved to KB Kookmin Bank, where he served as CFO and head of the business group before being appointed bank chief in 2022 as the then youngest CEO in the industry. Over three years, he reorganised the bank’s profit structure and sales system, and is assessed to have laid the groundwork for KB Kookmin Bank to regain its status as the leading bank after posting record net profit in 2025.

From 2025, he has also served as KB Financial Group’s head of global business and head of the WM and SME division, overseeing group-wide businesses. That broadened his experience from finance and strategy to global business, wealth management and small and medium enterprise finance.

Lee inherits ‘leading financial group’ status, with next growth engine a key task

Lee faces the task of lifting KB Financial’s performance and corporate value another notch from already high levels.

KB Financial currently has balanced profit-generating capacity not only in banking but also across non-banking affiliates such as securities, insurance and cards. It must also continue shareholder return expansion and corporate value enhancement policies widened under Yang. The management burden could increase because it must protect competitiveness in existing businesses while creating new growth engines.

As the committee highlighted Lee’s strength in responding to industry restructuring and money moves, attention will focus on what changes he shows in the businesses he has directly overseen, including capital markets, wealth management, global and SME. His experience in both non-banking mergers and acquisitions and bank management could also serve as a strength in any future group portfolio reshaping process.

If Yang expanded KB Financial’s scale and corporate value through record results and increased shareholder returns, Lee’s task is to build new growth pillars on that foundation.

As he was chosen over the incumbent chairman as a symbol of “change and generational turnover”, the first yardstick of assessment is expected to be how quickly he shows a distinctive approach in management strategy compared with the previous leadership.