Kim Bom-suk, the chairman of the board of Coupang Inc., poses exterior the New York Inventory Change forward of the e-commerce firm’s IPO on March 11, 2021. (courtesy of the NYSE; AP/Yonhap)
In 2021, when Coupang started buying and selling on the New York Inventory Change, its founder, Kim Bom-suk, stepped down from all official posts on the firm’s Korean workplace, citing a need to “deal with world administration.”
Nevertheless, inside paperwork and communication data relationship from 2016 to 2020 submitted to a Korean court docket by the corporate’s former chief privateness officer as a part of a wrongful termination case and seen by the Hankyoreh counsel that Kim’s resignation from these roles was no easy administration choice.
The supplies reveal that prolonged discussions passed off to absolve Kim, who goes by Bom Kim within the US and serves as CEO and chairman of the board for US-based Coupang Inc., of accountability on the Korean subsidiary in preparation for varied controversies.
These discussions date again to October 2018. In 2017, Coupang got here beneath hearth throughout a parliamentary audit for not paying its “Coupang Males” supply drivers their additional time wages by implementing a blanket wage system. Controversy solely mounted when, in 2018, the corporate’s take a look at run of its early-morning supply service revealed brutal working situations and a hostile work surroundings.
Internally, Coupang had begun to debate the chance that Kim can be topic to government-led investigations. In line with the paperwork submitted to the court docket, Sam O’Brien, Coupang’s vp of authorized and chief of workers to the chief administration officer, exchanged messages via the encrypted messaging app Sign, saying that “the second concern” was “that some man from the Labor Workplace will query Bom about some CDM concern,” utilizing shorthand for Coupang supply males.
“[A]pparently, we will’t get out of this one,” O’Brien wrote.
Sign messages and emails seen by the Hankyoreh concerning Kim Bom-suk, the founder and chairperson of the Coupang Inc. board.
O’Brien went on to counsel that appointing Kim as a “‘Founder’ position and CEO of LLC,” whereas appointing one other native Korean as CEO may very well be a viable answer.
O’Brien wrote that “apparently Sue Lynn was trying into this at one level,” referring to a authorized adviser for Coupang on the time.
O’Brien talked about that one of many doable candidates to fill Kim’s sneakers was somebody whom he had performed golf with from the regulation agency Kim & Chang. The previous CPO knowledgeable the Hankyoreh that this was a reference to Kang Han-seung, who certainly went on to function CEO of Coupang Korea.
Kang was introduced on to be Coupang’s consultant director of enterprise administration in October 2020 after performing as a authorized adviser to the corporate following his profession as a companion at Kim & Chang and as a secretary to the president for authorized affairs throughout the Lee Myung-bak administration.
After Coupang’s preliminary public providing on the New York Inventory Change in 2021, Kim stepped down as chairperson of Coupang Korea and as registered director, lastly bringing to fruition the discussions that had taken place years earlier about splitting the company and appointing a separate CEO to disperse authorized legal responsibility associated to Korean operations.
The paperwork additionally counsel that makes an attempt have been made in April 2020 to lower Kim’s publicity to the general public. The paperwork present that Harold Rogers, the previous chief administrative officer who has at present taken over as CEO of Coupang Korea, requested the top of the “folks operations” division that direct experiences filed by executives to Kim via Outlook and Workday, Coupang’s inside human useful resource administration methods, be hidden. This request appears to have been an try to cover Kim’s existence and influence throughout the firm’s official group chart.
Inner data additionally revealed the corporate’s opaque decision-making course of. An e mail despatched by a member of the data safety division’s safety coverage staff requested workers to “chorus from sharing the contents of vital conferences over e-mail.”
The paperwork supplied to Korean courts by the previous chief privateness officer additionally reveal that, when discussing over Sign how to reply to the mass breakout of COVID-19 in one in every of Coupang’s distribution facilities in Might 2020, Kim wrote, “Okay let’s maintain the communications off e mail.”
Coupang supply vehicles fill lots in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Kim Kyu-shik, a director on the Korean Company Governance Discussion board, instructed that whereas Coupang’s system has “many faults,” it didn’t essentially violate company governance rules.
“The true downside lies in the truth that, despite the fact that the US company makes the key choices, the enterprise operates in Korea. As such, the Korean subsidiary is evading rules in Korea whereas the US dad or mum firm is evading rules within the US,” he added.
“The Korean subsidiary’s board should have inside management constructions, reminiscent of a particular committee able to monitoring and supervising well being, human rights, security and safety,” Kim Kyu-shik added.
Reached for remark, Coupang claimed {that a} “former govt who was dismissed 5 years in the past [in 2020] is unilaterally making distorted claims out of disgruntlement,” whereas stressing that the corporate “received in each the primary and second trials within the associated authorized case.”
By Search engine marketing Hye-mi, workers reporter
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