[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] For the first time since its founding, Kakao Enterprise has appointed an individual who has grown within the company based on its internal technical capabilities Kakao(035720) as its sole CEO. With the appointment of Lee Jae-han—who designed the infrastructure for KakaoTalk—as the new CEO, the company’s management strategy, which has traditionally relied on recruiting external experts and having executives serve concurrently as heads of affiliate companies, is expected to shift toward “technology-centric leadership.”

Kakao Enterprise announced on the 6th that it held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and a board of directors meeting, during which it appointed Lee Jae-han as its new CEO.

CEO Lee is a technology expert who rose through the ranks at Kakao. While serving as the head of system engineering at Kakao, he was responsible for designing and operating the KakaoTalk infrastructure architecture. He later moved to Kakao Enterprise, where he served as head of the Cloud Infrastructure and Digital Transformation (DX) division and head of the Business Division.

With his experience spanning not only technology development but also business strategy formulation and service commercialization, he is regarded as the ideal candidate at a time when competition in enterprise AI infrastructure—including AI data centers, cloud, and AI platforms—is intensifying.

CEO Lee stated, “We are at a major turning point where AI data centers, cloud infrastructure, and AI platforms are becoming increasingly important in the new paradigm shaped by AI,” adding, “During this critical period of change, I will do my utmost to lead the AI transformation and drive change across the entire industry, leveraging Kakao Enterprise’s cloud expertise and technological capabilities.”

Since its inception, Kakao Enterprise has been led by CEOs with distinct leadership styles. The first CEO was Baek Sang-yeop, who came from LG CNS. Baek is a B2B business expert who, after serving as Head of the Public Sector Division and Head of the Business Implementation Headquarters at LG CNS, was responsible for business development and synergy initiatives at LG Corp.

In 2019, Kakao recruited CEO Baek to strengthen its push into the enterprise market, appointing him as CEO of AI Lab CIC, the predecessor to Kakao Enterprise. Drawing on his experience providing IT services to large corporations, he led the expansion of Kakao’s B2B business.

CEO Lee Kyung-jin, who served as the second CEO, is the founder of Xon2, a cloud specialist company. He joined Kakao Enterprise when the company acquired Xon2 to strengthen its cloud competitiveness, and subsequently rose to the position of CEO after serving as Head of the Cloud Division. Under CEO Lee Kyung-jin’s leadership, the reorganization of the cloud business centered on Kakao Cloud began in earnest.

Subsequently, in March 2025, CEO Lee Won-ju took office. A software engineer originally from Kakao, Lee had previously served as CEO of DK Techin. To foster synergy among affiliates and improve management efficiency, Kakao appointed Lee Won-ju to concurrently serve as CEO of both Kakao Enterprise and DK Techin.

CEO Lee Won-ju joined Kakao in 2008 and led its technology organization; he took over as CEO of DK Techin in 2015 and has been driving the expansion of the enterprise IT services business. At Kakao Enterprise, he worked to strengthen competitiveness in B2B IT and AI infrastructure, but stepped down from his position as CEO after about a year for personal reasons.

DK Techin subsequently transitioned to a leadership structure headed by CEO Lee Chae-young. CEO Lee Chae-young is leading the enterprise IT services and business platform divisions, focusing on the advancement of AI-based solutions such as KakaoWork.

Industry observers view the appointment of CEO Lee Jae-han as an opportunity for Kakao Enterprise to reaffirm its identity as a “technology company.” Analysts interpret this as a strategy to enhance the company’s responsiveness in the AI infrastructure market by bringing to the forefront a technology leader who possesses internal infrastructure experience at Kakao, following a track record that includes serving as an external B2B expert, a cloud startup founder, and a concurrent CEO of an affiliate company.

Kakao Enterprise is targeting the enterprise market with a focus on Kakao Cloud, AI infrastructure, and digital transformation (DX) businesses. Recently, the company has been accelerating the expansion of its AI computing infrastructure business, such as hybrid GPUaaS, and it is expected that its push into the enterprise AI market will intensify under CEO Lee Jae-han’s leadership.