May 20, 2026
SEOUL – Women held just 2.7 percent of chief executive posts at South Korea’s leading companies this year, showing that women remain rare in top corporate leadership despite a slight increase, according to local corporate tracker Leaders Index on Tuesday.
The survey, which looked at 370 companies out of the country’s top 500 by revenue that submitted business reports this year, found that there were 14 women among the 510 CEOs. The number of female CEOs had stayed at 12 for the previous three years before rising by two this year.
Although the increase was small, it came alongside a decline in the total number of CEOs. The surveyed companies had 510 CEOs this year, down from 545 in 2023, a decrease of 35, or 6.4 percent.
The average age of CEOs at the surveyed companies rose to 60.0, continuing an upward trend from 59.1 in 2023 and 59.8 last year.
The findings also showed that South Korea’s largest companies relied heavily on internal promotions when appointing their top executives. Internally promoted CEOs accounted for 84.5 percent of the total, the highest share in four years.
Among 58 CEOs newly appointed this year, 47 were promoted from within their companies.
By career background, CEOs with experience in planning and strategy made up the largest group, accounting for 42.6 percent of the total. That was up from 35.6 percent in 2023.
The proportion of CEOs from finance backgrounds fell slightly to 18.8 percent from 19.4 percent in 2023. CEOs with experience in sales and marketing also declined from 10.3 percent to 8.2 percent over the same period.
The share of CEOs with research and development backgrounds rose to 6.9 percent from 5.9 percent three years earlier. CEOs from production and manufacturing backgrounds also increased, rising from 4.9 percent to 5.7 percent.