Director Chae Seon-joo is CEO of External & ESG Former Naver CEO Han Seong-suk (pictured), who dropped the title of CEO, will take on a new challenge as European business development representative, and internal director Chae Seon-ju, who was the chief communications officer (CCO), will take on a new challenge. On the 16th, Naver appointed former CEO Han as the head of European business development through organizational restructuring. CEO Han focuses on pioneering the European market by introducing Navers various services and technologies. He plans to head back and forth between France, Spain and Korea as a field commander and lead European projects. Although there was a controversy over responsibility for the death of an employee due to workplace harassment last year, CEO Chae took charge of external affairs while remaining as an inside director. In the information technology (IT) industry, Naver is paying attention to the fact that Naver has especially emphasized direct management of the CEO by appointing CEO Han and CEO Chae in this reorganization. It is interpreted that the placement of European business development and external affairs in the organization directly under CEO Soo-yeon Choi is a courtesy to the new CEO, who was born in 1981. Since CEO Han and CEO Chae were key figures who shared with Naver founder Hae-jin Lee since the early days of Naver, there was concern that the new CEOs leadership might seem weak. However, the prevailing view is that CEO Han will be given considerable discretion and proceed with the European project. There is also the view that CEO Choi has little experience in directly operating services unlike CEO Han, so it is to work with CEO Han. A senior official familiar with Navers internal affairs said that although each business department is preparing to report a business to CEO Choi, the general consensus is that Hans grip will remain. It is also predicted that Naver will set up a separate European corporation in the future. In particular, it is expected to take on a challenge in the European market with commerce. Last year, Naver invested in Wallapop, a Spanish second-hand trading platform, and Bestiere, a European used luxury resale platform. It is said that a representative at the time was deeply involved in this from the beginning. It is reported that Naver is planning to build a Spanish version of a smart store platform in partnership with Walla Pop.
