Hanmi Financial Corp. in Los Angeles has hired Jay S. Yoo, the former U.S. head of South Korea's Woori Bank, as its president and chief executive officer.
Mr. Yoo was the chairman, president, and CEO at Woori America Bank in New York from 2001 to 2007. He will start his new job Monday and will succeed Chung Hoon Youk, who had been Hanmi's interim president and CEO since Sung Won Sohn resigned in December.
Richard B.C. Lee, Hanmi's chairman, said in a press release late Friday that Mr. Yoo has a "breadth of experience that will be invaluable as we address a variety of challenges facing Hanmi, not the least of which are the need to improve credit quality and achieve a measure of stability in the bank's financial performance."
The $4 billion-asset Hanmi, which caters primarily to Korean-Americans, has been hit hard by the real estate downturn. Its nonperforming assets climbed 355% from a year earlier, to $88.7 million as of March 31, and its first-quarter earnings plunged 77%, to $2.9 million.
Mr. Yoo, 61, is expected to join the boards of both Hanmi Financial and its Hanmi Bank.
