Big Hit Entertainment, the label behind boy groups BTS and TXT, on March 6 said it has tapped Yoon Seok-jun, its chief business officer, to lead the company as new co-CEO.

In a move to meet the company’s fast growth, the agency aims to strengthen competitiveness and expertise by splitting the contents production and business between the two CEOs.

Founder and incumbent CEO Bang Si-hyuk will helm Big Hit’s content production, while Yoon will oversee the business side of things, including global business, video content, intellectual property and platform business.

Big Hit Entertainment co-CEO Yoon Seok-jun (Big Hit Entertainment)

“Yoon is someone who never gave up on creating the best contents, while striving to break new grounds,” the label said in a statement. “Through this appointment, we will strengthen expertise in each sector to fulfill the anticipation of the fans and grow global competitiveness.”

The 42-year-old joined Big Hit in 2010 as director of strategic planning and took various roles during his tenure, including contents creation, management, and business operations. He is known as a key “hidden player” in the company for his contribution to Big Hit’s rapid growth. Projecting the importance of video contents in the K-pop idol industry, he formed a special video contents team in the firm. Yoon is also cited as the person behind creating fan contents, the key success factor for BTS’ popularity.

In 2015, he focused on growing the business as the head of business planning, and in 2017 strengthened global partnership and network, including BTS’ IP business and world tour.

Thanks to BTS’ enormous popularity, Big Hit has emerged as one of the most profitable entertainment agencies here, beating industry giants such as YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment. Formed in 2005 by producer Bang, who formerly established JYP with Park Jin-young, also rolled out new five-piece boy band TXT this week -- first idol group in six years since BTS -- in a move to carry on its stellar growth.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)