The South Korean company behind popular mobile messenger app Kakao Talk has appointed a 34-year-old start-up investor as the country's youngest corporate boss.
Rim Ji Hoon was named CEO of Daum Kakao Corp on Monday. He will turn 35 next month when the board and shareholders will vote on the decision.
The appointment is a bold move in South Korea where top positions at major companies are usually filled from the ranks of family owners or long-serving employees.
All three current CEOs at Samsung Electronics Co, for example, joined the company in the 1970s or the 1980s.
Corporate watchdog CEOScore said Rim will be the youngest CEO among South Korea's top 500 companies. The second youngest CEO after Rim is 46 years old.
"This event is very similar to Softbank Masayoshi Son's appointment of Nikesh Arora as his successor," said Park Ju-gun, president at CEOScore, referring to the India-born, former Google executive who was earlier this year appointed as president at Japan's Softbank.
"They are both from outside the company."
Park said Brian Kim, the South Korean Internet mogul who founded Kakao Talk and later acquired Daum Communications, likely made the decision.
Daum Kakao's stock finished 2.7 per cent higher in Seoul after the CEO announcement.
