On October 17, Korean media reported that NewJeans' management company - ADOR - held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and approved a proposal to appoint former CEO Min Hee Jin as internal director. Min Hee Jin's term will be 3 years, starting from November 2, 2024.
Previously, at the end of August, HYBE Group held a board meeting to change the CEO of its subsidiary ADOR. Min Hee Jin was fired from the CEO position and replaced by HYBE HR Director Kim Joo Young.
At that time, ADOR announced that Min Hee Jin would step down as CEO but would remain as an internal director and continue to handle production for the NewJeans group. The company would separate management and production according to HYBE's multi-brand operating principles.
In response to HYBE's move, Min Hee Jin's lawyer argued: "The Board of Directors unilaterally decided to fire the CEO despite Min Hee Jin's wishes, which is a serious violation of the shareholders' agreement.
The company announced that Min Hee Jin will continue to produce for NewJeans, but this was not discussed with her and was a unilateral announcement from the company.”
Min Hee Jin said that when she was dismissed, the new CEO of ADOR, Kim Joo Young, offered a production agreement contract to the NewJeans group, but the period only lasted about 2 months, from August 27 to November 1, 2024. Min Hee Jin said that this contract had many unreasonable and harmful terms, so she did not agree.
On September 11, all 5 members of NewJeans (Minji, Hanni, Haerin, Danielle, Hyein) held a live broadcast on YouTube, asking HYBE to reinstate Min Hee Jin as CEO before September 25.
Then, on September 13, Min Hee Jin also filed a request to ban HYBE from exercising voting rights and to be reinstated as CEO of ADOR.
On September 25, ADOR held a board meeting to consider the request NewJeans made during the livestream. At the meeting, ADOR proposed that Min Hee Jin be an internal director for 5 years (corresponding to the entire remaining time in the contract with NewJeans), but did not allow her to return to the CEO position.
Min Hee Jin's side objected to this decision because they believed that the unreasonable terms in the contract had not been changed.
