Romi Hann, the founder of Hann Corporation, was selected as one of the annual "Top 50 Women to Watch 2008" by the Wall Street Journal. Hann, 44 years old and ranked 48th, is the only woman from Korea.
Sheila Blair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance, topped the list followed by Indra Nooyi, chairwoman of PepsiCo, and Barbara Desoer, president of Mortgage, Home Equity & Insurance Services of Bank of America. Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of People's Bank of China and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde were also included on the top 10.
As a female Korean CEO, Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun was selected in 2007, and Yoon Song-yee, chief strategy officer of NCsoft Corp., and Kim Sung-joo, president of Sungjoo International, were selected in 2004.
The paper said Hann's company became a success in the cleaner industry dominated by giant conglomerates like Samsung and LG; its steam cleaner priced at about W80,000 became a hit product in the U.S. market (US$1=W1,327). Hann established her firm in 1999, and earned some W2 billion in steam cleaner sales in 2002 and more than W100 billion in 2005.
Hann was delighted, given how hard she "struggled to maintain the business in the competitive home appliance market in South Korea." "I will take this as encouragement and commit myself to developing it into a global home appliance corporation," she added.
