UN Secretary-General appoints CEO of Naver to the UN Global Compact Board

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who serves as Board Chair of the UN Global Compact, today welcomed Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, to the UN Global Compact Advisory Board. The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.

Choi Soo-yeon became the CEO of Naver, South Korea’s biggest internet company, in 2022. She is its second female CEO and its youngest non-founder CEO. A corporate/M&A lawyer by training at Yulchon and an LL.M. graduate of Harvard Law School (2018), she rejoined NAVER in 2019 to lead global business initiatives before taking the helm. As CEO, she is driving NAVER’s AI-first global expansion—rolling out “on-service AI” across core products and launching NAVER Ventures in the United States to back high-potential startups and deepen international partnerships. Her governance, responsible-tech and cross-border operating experience aligns closely with the mission of the UN Global Compact; Naver has been an active participant of the UN Global Compact since 2014.

“Choi Soo-yeon brings deep expertise on how digital companies can create value and scale globally while upholding principles on responsible and sustainable business. We look forward to her participation on our Board as we mobilize business to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. 

Lee Dong-Kurn, President of the UN Global Compact Network Korea stated “We are delighted that CEO Choi Soo-yeon has been appointed as a UN Global Compact board member, the first Korean in 17 years. We look forward to NAVER continuing to lead the establishment of a sustainable management ecosystem on the global stage and to playing an active role as a global leader through ongoing collaboration with the UN Global Compact.”

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The UN Global Compact challenges businesses to take concrete actions to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The UN Global Compact Board plays an important role in shaping the strategy and policy of the initiative, which acts as the UN flagship for responsible business action. Designed as a multi-stakeholder body, the Board provides ongoing strategic and policy advice for the initiative. Board members are considered champions who are willing and able to advance the mission of the UN Global Compact. They act in a personal, honorary and unpaid capacity.

For the current list of board members please refer to: www.unglobalcompact.org/about/governance/board/members

Notes to Editors

About the UN Global Compact
The ambition of the UN Global Compact is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the SDGs through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 20,000 participating companies, 5 Regional Hubs, 64 Country Networks covering 85 countries and 9 Country Managers establishing Networks in 16 other countries, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world. For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at unglobalcompact.org.

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