On the evening of September 27, former CEO Min Hee Jin gave a speech as the keynote speaker at the Hyundai Card Da Vinci Motel 2024 event, held in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (South Korea).
Her talk topic was: “The Producer Who Broke the K-Pop Formula: Min Hee Jin’s Freestyle”, which lasted more than 100 minutes, double the time of other speakers.
During the talk, Min Hee Jin stated, “I created both SM’s logo and HYBE’s logo. I didn’t come up with the name HYBE, but I created the slogan.”
HYBE's slogan is “We believe in music”.
“I put my heart and soul into what I envisioned the company could become,” she explains. “I thought it would be great to combine art and business in a way that was perfect, but it seemed like no one else was doing it. I wanted to try.”
Also at the event, Min Hee Jin thanked the audience for their warm welcome. However, she politely asked the audience not to film her with their personal phones.
“Please don’t take pictures. The truth is, we won’t have many opportunities to see each other like this. Whether you’re Bunnies (NewJeans fans) or not, this moment is precious to me. I want today to be like a conversation with friends,” said Min Hee Jin.
In addition, fans paid attention to the information that Min Hee Jin said that she spent 2.3 billion won (about 43 billion VND) on legal fees for issues related to the war with HYBE.
“The legal fees have reached 2.3 billion won so far. Most people can’t afford it. Some people say it’s a strategic lawsuit, but fortunately I’m single and my parents are still well off,” she said.
I thought I was going to have to sell my house because of the lawsuit. But I thought: Is this why I have a house? How lucky I am to have it. What would I do without it?”
Min Hee Jin continued, “I wanted to kick them out, but without money, I couldn’t fight back. I’m also grateful that I don’t have a husband or children. How can an ordinary person handle a debt that increases by tens of billions in just 3 months?
That's why I decided: I have to win. I want to prevent wars like this from happening in the future."
Previously, when Min Hee Jin was fired by HYBE, 5 NewJeans members (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haein and Hyein) held a livestream on September 11, requesting that Min Hee Jin be reinstated as CEO of ADOR before September 25.
At the shareholders meeting on September 25, HYBE proposed a compromise, asking Min Hee Jin to continue as the internal director, in charge of production for the NewJeans group for the next 5 years. However, HYBE did not accept Min Hee Jin returning as CEO of ADOR.
Min Hee Jin rejected this offer because she thought HYBE only extended the contract term and did not change the harmful terms in the contract.
