ADOR reappoints Min Hee-jin as in-house director: All you need to know

On Thursday, October 17, 2024, Min Hee-jin was reappointed as ADOR's internal director, aka in-house director, during an emergency shareholders' meeting. As per her new contract terms, her tenure as ADOR's internal director has been extended up to three years, starting November 2, 2024.

It is crucial to note that the role of an internal director/in-house director differs from that of a CEO. Hee-jin has been made the internal director of ADOR to supervise NewJeans and the group's production of future projects.

"Today, Ador held a temporary shareholders' meeting and re-elected former CEO Min Hee-jin as an inside director." (as reported by Newsen).

On August 27, 2024, she was dismissed as the CEO of ADOR, and Kim Joo-young was appointed as the label's new CEO. However, the HYBE subsidiary offered Min Hee-jin a contract, designating her as the internal director of ADOR for two months until November 2024. She refused to sign the deal and demanded to be reinstated as the label's chief executive officer.

On September 25, ADOR held another emergency shareholders' meeting after the rookie girl group NewJeans voiced their support for the former CEO. During a YouTube livestream, the ADOR girl group demanded Min Hee-jin be reinstated as the label's CEO by September 25. However, the shareholders unanimously rejected their demands in the meeting.

During the shareholders' meeting in September, ADOR offered her a revised contract. As per the deal, she was asked to become the internal director of NewJeans for five years or the remainder of the group's contract, which she refused to sign again.

Sports Kyunghyang reported that the independent board of directors at ADOR mentioned on September 25 that reinstating Min Hee-jin as the label's CEO was "unacceptable":

“The board of directors resolved to convene a temporary shareholders’ meeting to reappoint Director Min as an inside director. However, the Ador board of directors discussed that the demand for the reinstatement of the CEO position is currently unacceptable.”

Further, on October 17, 2024, the emergency shareholders' meeting was held after the former ADOR CEO filed an injunction to call the meeting to be reappointed as the label's head. Meanwhile, the latest revised contract reduced her tenure as an internal director or in-house director from 5 to 3 years.

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Min Hee-jin's final injunction hearing to get reappointed as ADOR's CEO set for the end of October

HYBE's feud with the former CEO of its subsidiary label ADOR has been going on since March 2024. The parent company accused Min Hee-jin of attempting to take over ADOR and NewJeans by toppling HYBE's authority. Later, reports of her conspiring with Dunamu (HYBE's third largest shareholder) to crash HYBE's stocks in the market surfaced online.

To avoid being dismissed as the label's CEO, Min Hee-jin filed an injunction in court to prohibit the parent company from using its majority shareholders' rights. HYBE owns 80% of ADOR's shares.

She won the injunction and retained her CEO position. However, ADOR's board of directors fired her on August 27, 2024. She filed another injunction on September 13 to get reinstated as the CEO.

Amidst the ongoing feud, the first hearing of the second injection was held on October 11, 2024, at the Seoul Central District Court. According to Korea Joongang Daily, the court stated,

"Both parties are repeating the content of the May 30 injunction case. It is quite frankly a waste of precious time to make the case."

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The court ordered that it would accept relevant data until October 25, 2024, and by the end of the month, would declare its final verdict on the case.