Photo Credit: NewJeans for OLensGlobal / YouTube / CC by 3.0
ADOR, HYBE, and NewJeans try to calm the waters as Min Hee-jin steps down from her position as ADOR CEO.
More trouble is brewing in paradise for K-pop group NewJeans and former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin. After the kerfuffle that led to ADOR’s board of directors trying to oust Min Hee-jin, the company announced last week that Min would be stepping down from her position, to be replaced by Kim Ju-young, a member of ADOR’s board of directors. Notably, Kim is also the chief HR officer at HYBE, and formerly served as head of the HR department at other companies before joining HYBE in May 2022.
“In line with HYBE’s label operation principle of separating production and management, ADOR will also separate production and management,” said Kim. “Though Min Hee-jin will step down as CEO, she will retain her position as an internal director at ADOR and continue her work in producing NewJeans.”
But Min’s legal team stated on Friday that she would not accept the work delegation contract that would enable her to remain at the company as NewJeans’ producer. The former CEO stated the contract is full of “toxic clauses” that allow her to be “excluded from the job at any time for any reason.”
Meanwhile, the administration shifts seem to be positively affecting HYBE’s stock, which had hit a bit of a slump in the shadow of the ongoing dispute with Min. Now that that dispute seems to be heading toward a resolution, Korean institutional investors in particular have been buying up shares. After dropping to a low of 160,000 Korean won ($119.62) in mid-August, the stock closed at $127.86 on August 30, reaching as high as $140.85 earlier in the day.
And while investors seem pleased with the potential resolution, NewJeans members have broken their silence about the ongoing conflict and the stress that has come with it. “I feel so sorry that we’re going through unnecessary hardships when we could be spending our time sharing only good stories,” said Minji, who shared her thoughts on fan communication platform Phoning. “I feel so frustrated that I can’t resolve anything.”
Other members also shared their thoughts, with Danielle saying, “Since CEO Min Hee-jin was dismissed, it has been very tough, and I’ve had a lot on my mind. I was in a bit of a state of shock for a while and felt very anxious.” Hanni expressed her feelings through a song she composed, sharing, “I started creating this song back in April or May of this year. At the time, [we] were all struggling, and I wanted to comfort everyone and heal their wounds.”
Further NewJeans controversy arose on Monday, when the group’s music video director Shin Woo Seok announced that collaboration with ADOR was no longer possible, asserting that new management at the company had requested the deletion of all NewJeans-related videos. ADOR clarified that they only requested the removal of unauthorized videos to “protect the artists’ rights.”
