Kookmin Bank’s CEO promoted as KB Financial’s chair

Kang Chung-won appointment pushes through despite allegations of bias by other candidates.

Kang, 59, has led Kookmin Bank since 2004. He had been considered the most likely candidate to replace former KB Financial Group Chairman Hwang Young-key.

The decision by the KB group board members came after two other candidates for the spot denounced the hiring process as being biased in Kang’s favor. They said their candidacies had been merely a matter of formality, according to a report in JoongAng Daily.

The group’s nine board members who formed a committee to name the new chairman had an interview with Kang in the company’s headquarters in downtown Seoul and unanimously voted in his favor, according to an e-mailed statement from the group. Kang needed at least six votes to win the position.

"Kang has a proven management capability ... and was viewed as the right person who can respond well to upcoming storms in the financial industry," the group said in the statement. Kang’s designation for the three-year term will be put to a vote for final confirmation at a shareholders’ meeting slated for 7 January 2010.