KIC taps investment strategy head Lee Hoon as CIO

Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) is set to appoint Lee Hoon, the senior managing director and head of the investment strategy & innovation division, as its new chief investment officer.

On Thursday, the sovereign wealth fund of South Korea received confirmation from the Ministry of Economy and Finance that the government department has finished employment verification and approved Lee’s qualification as the next CIO, according to financial industry sources.

KIC will kick off a committee meeting later this week to approve the proposal for his appointment. If approved, Lee will take office after CIO Park Dae-yang, whose term ends on Aug. 4, for three years.    

KIC started taking applications for the CIO position in May and conducted document assessments and interviewed more than 10 C-suite professionals.

The sovereign wealth fund shortlisted Lee and Jang Dong-hun, a senior advisor at Korea’s major law firm Yulchon and the latest CIO of Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA) who left the mutual aid in February. By tapping Lee, it is the second time KIC has selected a CIO among its internal employees. In 2012, the sovereign wealth fund named former alternative investment managing director Lee Dong-ik as CIO.

Born in 1969, Lee built his career at Samsung Securities Co., Woori Investment & Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co., responsible for various roles such as small-cap firms and holding companies analysis. He joined KIC in 2014 as the head of the strategy & research team and led corporate analysis and asset allocation groups as well as the investment strategy division.

In August 2021, Lee became the head of the investment strategy & innovation division, leading the sovereign wealth fund’s strategy establishment and portfolio construction as well as supporting domestic financial industry development.

KIC is the world’s 14th-largest sovereign wealth fund with $205 billion in assets under management as of end-2021.

Founded in 2005, it has been entrusted with $115.1 billion from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Korea as of the end of the last year. Its AUM passed the $100 billion mark in 2016 and swelled to over $200 billion in 2021.

More Korean pension funds are tapping internal employees as CIOs. The Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU), a teachers’ retirement fund, named its former financial investment head Park Man-soo as its new CIO in January. Korea Scientists and Engineers Mutual-Aid Association (SEMA) appointed its former risk management head Park Yang-rae as the new CIO in May.

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