Suh Min-jung, the eldest daughter of AmorePacific Group chairman Suh Kyeong-bae, is scheduled to officially join her family’s company as a new employee from Jan. 1, 2017, the company said Friday.

In doing so, observers say the junior Suh has taken the first visible step in preparing to take over the family business as her father’s successor.

The 25-year-old AmorePacific heiress apparent will begin working as a starting-level employee at AmorePacific’s production plant in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, the company said.


The junior Suh’s appointment reflects a long-running tradition in the AmorePacific founding family to start learning about the firm’s cosmetics business from the bottom-up, explained an AmorePacific spokesperson.

“The founding family has always believed that understanding product management and production comes first before other management tasks,” the company spokesperson said.

"Chairman Suh Kyung-bae also began his career at AmorePacific by working at the firm’s Yongin plant. The group’s founder Suh Sung-hwan had also done the same," she added.

Having attained a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University, Suh Min-jung briefly worked at the Seoul office of global consulting firm Bain & Co. Many had expected she would soon join AmorePacific.

Adding to the succession picture, the junior Suh recently became the second-largest individual shareholder of AmorePacific Group, as the 2,412,710 preferred shares she had inherited from her father in 2006 were converted to common stocks after a 10-year holding period.

She now owns 2.71 percent of the group’s outstanding stocks that carry voting rights, worth around 330 billion won ($275 million), based on Thursday’s share price.

This makes the 25-year-old Suh the second-largest individual shareholder of AmorePacific Group after her father who has a 51.29 percent ownership.

In 2012, the chairman also handed over stakes in the group’s major brands to his eldest daughter. She holds an 18.18 percent stake in Innisfree as well as a 19.53 percent stake in Etude.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)