“I trust young engineers. I will dedicate myself to supporting them by focusing on my role on the board.”
Naver’s founder, Hae-jin Lee, has officially returned to Naver’s board of directors as an internal director. He has stepped down from all other positions, such as the Global Investment Officer (GIO), to focus on his role on the board and support young engineers.
Today (the 26th), at the 26th annual general meeting of shareholders held at Naver Green Factory in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, founder Lee, Naver CEO Soo-yeon Choi, and key executives were present. Both the proposal to appoint founder Lee as an internal director and the agenda for CEO Choi’s reappointment were passed.
With this, founder Lee returns to the board about eight years after resigning from the chairman position in March 2017. It is expected that he will be appointed to the chairman position through the board soon.
After the shareholders’ meeting, founder Lee met with reporters and said, “I am grateful to the shareholders for approving my return to the board. Young executives are bringing in new ideas and trying to be active, and I plan to fulfill my role in supporting and encouraging them on the board.”
He added, “I will step down from all my roles within the company, including the GIO position, to focus solely on the board. I trust and will support young engineers and executives to act more vigorously.”
Regarding the ongoing rumors of a crisis, he confidently stated, “We can’t always confront challenges directly, but we have ideas and strategies. I believe we must make various efforts to turn crises into opportunities. There will be more active movements going forward.”
He also left open the possibility of collaboration with global big tech companies.
Founder Lee expressed, “If there’s room for collaboration, I believe we should collaborate,” adding, “We’ve done various collaboration models before, including with Nvidia, and we are currently preparing.”
Nevertheless, he emphasized, “It’s disappointing if the world only uses one or two search engines or AIs, and I believe the diversity of the internet must be maintained. While large search engines are important, I think there is a need for new search engines that are unique to us in this world.”
He continued, “It is significant that there is a choice between Naver and Google in Korea. The era of search is expanding, not shrinking, and Naver will find its necessary position.”
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