HYBE Allegedly Hires Famous Branding Expert As Min Hee Jin’s Successor

It has been revealed that executive director Lee Bo Young, a branding expert known as Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yoo Kyung‘s “right-hand,” has joined the HYBE team.

Industry insiders feel that HYBE has recruited a successor to former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin, who left the company due to conflict over the NJZ (NewJeans) controversy.

According to inside sources on May 21, executive director Lee has already finished resigning from Shinsegae this month and will begin the formal process of joining HYBE at the end of this month.

Executive director Lee is indeed going to HYBE. There are still only a few people within HYBE who know about this, and it is something that has been shared with a few executives.

— Entertainment insider

Lee Bo Young is well known in the design and branding field and has previously worked for Sephora and Louis Vuitton.

Just like former CEO Min Hee Jin initially, Lee is expected to join the holding company HYBE, not the label. However, the exact position and rank are not known.

HYBE told the media outlet Weekly Chosun, “We cannot confirm whether a specific member has joined the company.”

However, netizens felt that they should hire someone with more entertainment industry knowledge in order to be Min’s “successor.”

• “Can’t they bring in some entertainment industry experts? Didn’t they learn from how Park Ji Won ran things and how angry the fandom got because of that?”
• “Hmm..this person is incomparably smart to be Min Hee Jin’s successor. It seems like they just added more female executives, but if they call her MIn’s successor, Lee probably won’t like it.”
• “Isn’t it different being a branding expert and a producer who writes songs and styling? I don’t care what happens to HYBE…do whatever you want.”
• “They hired a branding expert, not a producer. I guess it just shows what kind of company HYBE is.”