NPS shortlists 6 candidates for chief investment officer opening

National Pension Service (NPS) of South Korea, the world’s third-largest pension fund managing 896.6 trillion won ($690.5 billion) as of end-September, has shortlisted six candidates from the 18 applicants vying to become the next chief investment officer.

The pension fund’s executive recommendation committee informed the six candidates of the hiring process timeline last week, according to sources on Nov. 30.

The committee will conduct interviews with candidates as early as the first and the second week of December. The CIO selection is expected to be wrapped up as early as January 2023.

The pension fund narrowed the race to two major candidates by mid-November, sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation’s former CIO Park Dae-yang and the Government Employees Pension Service (GEPS) ex-CIO Seo Won-joo, The Korea Economic Daily reported last month.

But NPS has chosen four additional candidates for interviews, GEPS’ former CIO Lee Chang-hoon, Koreit Asset Management’s global asset management head Yom Jae-hyon, STIC Alternative CEO Yang Young-sik and an unknown figure.

Lee led the asset management of GEPS for two years from 2017. Between 2005 and 2010, he served as CEO of now-defunct Prudential Asset Management Korea, which was merged into Hanwha Group in 2011. Lee also worked for Korea Investment Management, Macquarie-IMM Investment Management, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2007, and Samsung Asset Management.

Yom, known to have a depth of experience in equity investments, worked for the Korean Teachers' Credit Union (KTCU), National Forestry Cooperative Federation and Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Fund until he joined Koreit in 2020.   

Yang joined NPS in 2005 and led the pension fund’s alternative investments and investment strategies. He became the first CEO of STIC Alternative, STIC Investment’s alternative investment arm with a primary focus on real assets.

Write to Jun-Ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.