South Korea's Naver reports RSU-led executive pay; Han Seong-sook tops 103 billion won
Naver, South Korea’s dominant internet portal and tech group, released its annual report detailing executive compensation and employee pay for the prior year. The filing highlights how top managers were rewarded, including significant stock-based pay components tied to performance.
The highest-paid individual from Naver last year was Han Seong-sook, who now serves as Minister of SMEs and Startups. Her compensation from Naver exceeded 103 billion won, including a retirement payout of about 4.038 billion won and approximately 5.12 billion won from exercising stock options. Her salary and other earnings were 375 million won and 469 million won, respectively.
Naver’s chief executive, Choi Soo-yeon, earned a total of 30.29 billion won. The breakdown shows a salary of 900 million won, a bonus of 2.061 billion won, and other earnings of 67.5 million won. The bonus portion included restricted stock units (RSUs) tied to stock-price performance, and the report notes that overall compensation rose about 54% from 2024, when it stood at 1.969 billion won.
Board chairman Hae-jin Lee earned 2.437 billion won in total compensation, with a salary of 1.54 billion won and a bonus of 760 million won. The filing notes this figure represents an increase of about 500 million won from 2024. The RSU and other compensation elements commonly accompany the executive pay package at this level.
Other top executives also show notable figures: Cha Seon-ju, head of Strategy, received about 2.011 billion won, while Kim Beom-jun, the chief operating officer, earned about 1.857 billion won. These figures illustrate the weight of leadership pay in Naver’s overall compensation structure, which blends fixed salaries with performance-related rewards and stock-based pay.
At the end of the year, Naver employed 4,425 staff, with an average salary of about 134.7 million won, roughly 1.7 million won higher than the previous year. The figure provides a sense of typical wage levels inside Korea’s leading tech firm and how compensation trends are shifting within the industry.
Context for international readers: Naver plays a central role in Korea’s technology and digital economy, encompassing search, messaging, fintech, and AI initiatives, with campuses such as the Seongnam-based 1784 building highlighted in coverage. The continued prominence of RSUs in executive pay reflects a global trend in tech compensation that ties a portion of pay to long-term company performance, aligning leadership incentives with shareholder value. For U.S. policymakers and investors, the report offers a window into Korea’s corporate governance norms, wage levels at a flagship tech company, and how large domestic tech firms attract and retain talent in a competitive global market.