HYBE CEO steps down to focus on music production

BTS agency HYBE’s founder Bang Si-hyuk will resign from his position as CEO to focus on music production. HYBE said that Bang will remain as chairman of the board of directors.

According to HYBE, the company’s board meeting on July 1 approved the appointment of Park Ji-won as the new CEO, replacing Bang. Having joined the entertainment company in May of last year, Park previously headed HYBE’s headquarter operations and was Nexon Korea’s CEO prior to his move to HYBE.

HYBE also added that its Japanese entities, namely HYBE Solutions Japan and HYBE T&D Japan, were merged into a single company under the name of HYBE Japan. Han Hyun-rok, previously the chief executive of HYBE Solutions Japan, will be leading HYBE’s new Japanese unit as its CEO.

HYBE America will be jointly led by CEO Yoon Suk-joon and CEO Scooter Braun, who will continue to lead Ithaca Holdings after its merger with HYBE.

Industry sources say that Yoon, on the other hand, will take action to follow up on HYBE’s strategic partnership with America’s Universal Music Group (UMG) announced in February.

HYBE had agreed to launch a new joint venture label with UMG’s Geffen Records to debut a new K-pop boy group targeting global music fans.

Geffen Records is an iconic music label that has helped to shape global youth and music culture over the past 40 years, nurturing music greats such as Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John and Avicii.  

“We will strive to secure competitive platform leadership and develop a top group of artists through our close partnership with UMG, enabling K-pop to transcend all borders and languages,” said Yoon in February.

Write to Soo-young Seong at syoung@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho has edited this article.