"Thirty-one years ago, a 27-year-old young man learned the attitude and mindset of a financial professional, organizational life, and the basics of human relationships at Hana Bank. Twenty-four years later, he has returned. I stand here with the conviction that laying the foundation for the newly launched Hana Asset Management is my final calling."
This was the closing paragraph of the inauguration speech delivered by CEO Kim Tae-woo before some 200 employees on October 30, 2023, the day Hana UBS Asset Management dropped its foreign financial group affiliation and relaunched as "Hana Asset Management." It was the moment a rookie banker—who had started married life in a 24-pyeong jeonse apartment in Haengsin-dong with 45 million won borrowed from the bank, having no money of his own—made a triumphant return to his old home as chief executive officer. In an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily on the 3rd, Kim recalled, "The 'assistant managers' I worked with back in those days had become president-level executives holding their posts, and some colleagues who remembered those times had tears in their eyes."
The emotion was brief. The position of inaugural CEO of the newly independent Hana Asset Management was no light burden, even for a 30-year veteran of the asset management industry. The first words Kim uttered before employees after his inauguration speech were "complete transformation." During 17 years of operation under a joint venture structure with foreign partner UBS, which held a 51% stake, synergy with Hana Financial Group had been severed, and the side effects of having all rules and organizational structures follow foreign methods were significant. Profits and market share declined every year, and the organization had fallen into a deep slump.
"Rather than the joy of a triumphant return, the burden weighed more heavily, and I had to grit my teeth to normalize the stagnant organization," Kim confided. The transformation began with "spatial change"—remodeling the office to shift the rigid organizational culture toward one centered on communication—followed by an overhaul of personnel, organizational, and evaluation systems. Just stabilizing the organization took more than half a year.
Kim is regarded in the industry as a "relief pitcher" with a track record of normalizing organizations in crisis. During his time at KTB Asset Management (now Daol Asset Management), he restored an organization whose capital had been entirely eroded by savings bank compensation issues and which was suffering accelerating investor outflows. He emphasized that "justification" and "speed" were essential to scrub off the old grime in the new organization. Trusting his promise to make the performance-based pay system transparent, 13 former colleagues voluntarily moved to join Hana Asset Management. "To transform a stagnant organization, you must present members with a clear rationale for how each individual can grow as the company improves, and build consensus around objective and transparent compensation," he explained.
Two years and seven months later, Hana Asset Management employees unanimously say the company "has become 180 degrees different from the Hana UBS days." Of the more than 100 staff, 70% are new hires brought in after Kim took office, with former Hana UBS employees accounting for only 30%. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings, which stood at 300 billion won at the time of his appointment, have surpassed 4.7 trillion won (total assets under management increased from 28 trillion won to 40 trillion won), earning high marks for the industry's largest growth rate (1,400%) in the ETF segment, where new entry is difficult. Equity fund returns (on a general equity basis) have also climbed into the top 10%, ranking among the industry's leaders.
Kim is one of the most prominent fund manager-turned-CEOs produced by Korea's capital markets. Joining Hana Bank in 1993 and entering the securities management industry, he served as head of the equity management team at Mirae Asset Global Investments in the early 2000s, leading the success of the flagship "Discovery Fund" and driving Korea's domestic fund boom. He then joined global asset manager Fidelity, becoming the first Korean Country Head for a foreign firm's domestic equity investment division. Through his stint as CEO of KTB Asset Management and his arrival at Hana Asset Management as a relief pitcher, he has held CEO positions for nearly 20 of his more than 30 years in the industry, making him a recognized capital markets contender.
Unexpectedly, the catalyst that drew Kim into capital markets was a film he watched in college. "Watching the villain Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film 'Wall Street' lead mergers and acquisitions and enjoy lavish yacht parties, I felt an intense allure, and right after my military discharge I resolved to become 'Korea Country Head of a global foreign asset manager,'" Kim said.
At the time, the KOSPI had plunged from 1,000 points to 450 points, and the three major investment trust companies were not even hiring new employees during this dark period—but Kim's resolve was firm. From his school days he frequented the trading floor at the Sinyoung Securities Sinchon branch, paid 50 won per call on a public phone to obtain stock price information, and began investing in stocks with his tutoring earnings. Through a securities analysis class in 1987, he formed a team of five and selected his first stocks using a top-down approach—from national macro analysis down to company analysis. Those first picks included Kyungin Energy (now SK Incheon Petrochem), Goni Precision, and Hyein. By today's standards, he had invested in "electronics, energy, and infrastructure small-caps." "I'm reminded that the basic analytical framework for nations, industries, and individual companies is the same now as it was when I was a college senior," he reflected.
The business administration student who had frequented trading floors since his school days joined Hana Bank in 1993 and took charge of equity and bond management. The "Discovery Fund," which he led as head of the equity management team at Mirae Asset Global Investments in 2000, became an unprecedented hit in Korea's domestic fund market. But the path of a star fund manager was not as glamorous as in the movies. He had to endure the relentless pressure of having his performance broadcast daily to the entire nation.
The experience of being protested by investors during the millennium bubble of 2001, when the index halved and a closed-end mutual fund posted losses, etched into him the heavy responsibility of managing "other people's money." Kim, who believes that wealth is the most precious thing after life itself, emphasized, "Every bit was the blood-and-sweat money of investors, each with their own poignant story. If you enter the asset management business, you must have the mindset that you are managing something second only in importance to your client's life."
Lessons gained through exchanges with masters in advanced global markets also fortified him. During his Fidelity days, he absorbed the philosophies of legendary managers such as Peter Lynch and Anthony Bolton, called the greatest investor in British history, and sought to transplant to Korea four global DNAs he learned from them: curiosity and openness toward new things, professional consciousness as a specialized professional, agricultural diligence, and one's own hobby for managing extreme stress. "Just as Bolton relieved stress by composing woodwind quintets, on Sunday afternoons I visit the Gwacheon National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art or galleries in Insadong to appreciate paintings, and late at night I immerse myself in music while swapping out audio amplifiers and cables," Kim said.
He cited steady "agricultural diligence," rather than innate intuition, as the secret to enduring extreme stress and countless crises over the long haul. "Insight to find the essence amid vast information is important, but ultimately, agricultural diligence—analyzing steadily every day and visiting the field as if tilling the soil—determines victory or defeat," Kim said. "You also need cool-headed risk management, knowing how to play 'bogey golf' without overreaching in a bear market." The thorough pre-analysis system characteristic of foreign asset managers gave wings to this diligence. From his Fidelity days, 15 volumes of site visit summary notes—compiled over more than seven years and 40-plus meetings to analyze a single company—attest to that fierce track record. It was around this time that he also leveraged Fidelity's global network to thoroughly examine some 500 overseas competitors together with colleagues in Singapore and Tokyo.
Kim, a veteran who has weathered 30 years in the capital markets ecosystem, also offered affectionate but pointed advice to juniors entering the field. "A fund manager occupies a position akin to having your college entrance exam results released to the entire nation every week," he said. "Choosing this profession out of superficial appeal, or [viewing it as a contest of] winners and losers...
