Korean Corporate Titles | Korean Job Titles

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Korean Corporate Titles

In Korean business communications (e-mail, for example), people usually address one another on a last-name basis, even among co-workers in the same office; and an honorific job title almost always follows a person’s name.

For example, a Korean sentence may read:
“Shim Moo Jin Sang Moo is expected to meet Jung Jin Woo Jun Moo at the airport.”

In this hard-to-read sentence, “Sang Moo” and “Jun Moo” are corporate titles; Shim and Jung are surnames. To enhance readability, our company will render the sentence as follows :
“Moo-Jin SHIM (“Sang Moo”) is expected to meet Jin-Woo JUNG (“Jun Moo”) at the airport.”

What do "Sang Moo" and "Jun Moo" mean literally?

This is a near-complete list of Korean corporate titles.
(To display the Korean characters in the table properly, specify the encoding of this article as "Korean", which can be done by right-clicking any point of your browser window and choosing "Encoding" > "Korean".)

Title in Korean	Typical Phonetic Translation	English Translation of the Term	Literal Meaning of the Term	In translating their corporate titles in English publications, an increasing number of Korean companies are adopting more Westernized styles, indicating functional roles in Directors' titles. As for the exact choice of words, there can be many variations, and shown in this column is one set of examples. Note that these trendy translations may not be direct word-to-word translations of the officer positions as they appear in the Korean corporate charter.
회장	Hoe Jang	Chair of the Board of Directors	회 Hoe = Board 장 Jang = Chief	Chairman / Chairwoman
부회장	Boo Hoe Jang	Vice Chair of the Board of Directors	부 Boo = Vice 회 Hoe = Board 장 Jang = Chief	Vice Chairman / Vice Chairwoman
사장	Sa Jang	President	사 Sa = Company 장 Jang = Chief	President
부사장	Boo Sa Jang	Vice President	부 Boo = Vice 사 Sa = Company 장 Jang = Chief	Vice President
전무 (전무이사)	Jun Moo (Full Title: Jun Moo Ee Sa)	roughly, “Director in charge of all aspects of the company”	전 Jun = All 무 Moo = Duty, Affairs, In Charge	Senior Managing Director
상무 (상무이사)	Sang Moo (Full Title: Sang Moo Ee Sa)	roughly, “Director in charge of routine matters of the company”	상 Sang = Routine, Always 무 Moo = Duty, Affairs, In Charge	Managing Director
이사	Ee Sa	Director (a plain member of the Board without a special designation; often a Board member in the management)	이사 Ee Sa = Director	Director
사외이사	Sa Oe Ee Sa	Non-Management Director; Independent Director; or, Non-Independent Director	사 Sa = Company 외 Oe = External 이사 Ee Sa = Director	Outside Director
감사	Gahm Sa	Auditor	감사 Gahm Sa = Auditing Officer	Auditor General
고문	Go Moon	Advisor	고문 Go Moon = Advisor	Advisor
CEO: There is no direct, literal equivalent of the term "CEO" in a Korean corporate charter. The official, Korean title of the highest position in a Korean corporate entity is 대표이사. This term may fit in the table as follows.
대표이사	Dae Pyo Ee Sa	No English equivalent; May correspond to CEO or President	대표 Dae Pyo = Representing, Representative 이사 Ee Sa = Director	CEO or President
COO, CFO, etc: There are no literal equivalents of these terms, either. In English publications, Korean companies refer to some of their executive officers (e.g. "Jun Moo" or "Sang Moo") as COO, etc.

ê Non-Executive Positions
부장	Boo Jang	Division Head	부 Boo = Division, Department, Section 장 Jang = Chief	English translations of non-executive titles are hard to find in publications.
차장	Cha Jang	Vice Head of a Division	차 Cha = Vice; Deputy 장 Jang = Chief
과장	Gwa Jang	Head of a Unit	과 Gwa = a unit smaller than a “Boo” 장 Jang = Chief
대리	Dae Ree	No English equivalent. The term “Dae Ree” literally means "deputy". When used as a stand-alone title without a qualifier, it is simply a rank, often lower than “Gwa Jang”.
계장	Gye Jang	roughly “Team Leader”	계 Gye = a unit often smaller than a "Gwa". 장 Jang = Chief

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