HYBE CEO Park Ji-won might step down months after the company was involved in a feud with ADOR. As per Soompi, HYBE has also issued a statement, though it is brief. Ji-won joined HYBE in 2020 and became CEO the next year. 

Will Park Ji-won resign?

As per the report, investment industry insiders on Wednesday shared that Park Ji-won has decided to resign after he recently completed an external investment initiative for one of HYBE’s subsidiaries. HYBE said, “Nothing has been decided yet.”

Allkpop reported, quoting an insider, "From what I understand, Park Ji-won shared his position that he'd like to retire after recently completing his project to attract outside investment for one of HYBE's affiliates."

About Park Ji-won

Ji-won gained recognition as the CEO of Nexon Korea, a leading video game company, starting in 2014. He joined BIGHIT MUSIC (now HYBE) in May 2020. Ji-won began his term as CEO in 2021, succeeding current chairman Bang Si-hyuk. Ji-won, in HYBE, established a multi-label system. He also supported the success of affiliated artists. Ji-won's time at HYBE was, however, marked by conflicts with Min Hee-jin, the CEO of ADOR.

What Ji-won had said during HYBE, ADOR feud

In April this year, HYBE initiated an audit of the ADOR management. It took the step after detecting attempts by ADOR to become independent. Later, HYBE shared a detailed press release about the audit. At that time, Ji-won had said, as quoted by Soompi, “I am apologetic for causing concerns to fans, artists, and personnel [of the labels] for what happened in the process of upgrading the multi-label [system]."

He had also said, "Now that the incident has come to a conclusion, we will maximize our efforts for the psychological counseling and emotional stability of the artists, who are valuable assets of K-pop.”