Find out who Min hee Jin is and how his career unfolded, the former CEO of ADOR who became responsible for the debut of NewJeans
The members of NewJeans, Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyeinheld a surprise live broadcast on YouTube this Wednesday, 11, to share their feelings about the current management of the company that manages the group’s career, HYBE’s subsidiary, ADOR, stating that the way the company has been operating “is not correct and moral”, and that they now see the conglomerate as an “inhumane company”, in addition to requesting the return of Min Hee Jin to the position of CEO of the agency within a maximum of two weeks.
I feel that we will not be able to accomplish the things we planned with CEO Min, nor will we be able to realize our dreams,” Danielle said. “We ask that HYBE and Chairman Bang [Bang Si Hyuk] make the wise decision to return ADOR to how it originally was by the 25th,” Minji demanded.
It is worth remembering that, at the beginning of the broadcast (via Koreaboo), the idols stated that the announcement was made independently, and that Min Hee Jin never asked them to talk about the subject.
But who is it? Min Hee Jin?
A well-known name in the K-pop industry for years, Min Hee Jin She began her career as a graphic designer at SM Entertainment in 2002, becoming responsible for creating the visual branding for groups such as Girls’ Generation, SHINee, f(x), EXO and Red Velvet.
Due to the brilliant work he did, Hee Jin has been recognized several times at awards shows, with one of her most notable achievements being the award for best visual and art director at the Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2016.
In 2017, Min Hee Jin became part of the board of directors of SM Entertainment, but in 2018 she ended up leaving the entertainment company, as, as she revealed in a December 2021 episode of “You Quiz on the Block”, by producing the artistic and promotional work for about four to five albums per month, she ended up feeling burned out.
Shortly after, she joined HYBE in 2019, assuming the position of Branding Director, and becoming responsible for leading the brand of the companies affiliated with the conglomerate, and also for reformulating the brand of the parent company, that is, turning Big Hit Entertainment into HYBE Corporation, a change that took place in 2021.
The new position at HYBE also came about in 2021, as she became CEO of HYBE’s first original sub-label, ADOR, and managed the agency’s first girl group, which was previously scheduled to be released under the label of another subsidiary, Source Music.
That way, Min Hee Jin transferred some trainees from Source Music to ADOR, covering all the expenses of the years of training at the old company and, shortly after, launched NewJeans, a group that debuted in 2022 under the Y2K aesthetic, and soon became historic, as it surpassed several records, such as the fastest K-Pop act to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify and the group with the most “Perfect All-Kills”.
Even though everything seemed to be going well, on August 27th of this year, Min Hee Jin was removed from her position as CEO of ADOR, and the position was taken over by Kim Joo Youngan HR (human resources) specialist. Days later, the former CEO also stated that, with the new contract established, she would only produce NewJeans for two more months.
The change caused discomfort among the members of NewJeans, and concern among other idols, such as Badafrom SES, who revealed that he was “praying for an incredible miracle to happen for them [NewJeans]”, and the removal of the director Shin Woo Seokresponsible for the production company Dolphiners Films, which produced the music videos for the group’s “Ditto” and “ETA”.
It is worth noting that the decision by HYBE and ADOR came after months of conflict between the businesswoman and HYBE, given that in April the conglomerate began an audit at ADOR after suspecting that Min Hee Jin and other alleged parties involved were trying to transform the subsidiary into an independent company, even asking the now former CEO to resign from her position.
At the time, the businesswoman justified the disagreement with HYBE in another way, stating that the conflict began after she reported an alleged plagiarism by ILLIT, claiming that the new girl group from BeLift Lab (a company subsidized by HYBE) copied the NewJeans concept.
Between press conferences and statements released since then, it is known that Min Hee Jin sued five HYBE executives for defamation, and reportedly had a lawsuit filed by HYBE against her. The case remains open.
Source: Recreio
