Han Seong-Sook

Han, a former tech journalist who became Naver’s first female CEO in 2017, has spent the past two years expanding the Internet giant’s payments service, its e-commerce site, and its cloud services. Those investments paid off as the pandemic accelerated consumers’ migration to digital platforms; its operating revenue increased 16.7% year on year in the second quarter of 2020. Naver’s cloud computing business was an especially bright spot. The division’s revenue grew 70% in the second quarter compared with last year, contributing to a quarterly net profit of $76 million. Naver also introduced tools to help South Koreans navigate the coronavirus crisis, including a search function that ranked pharmacies by how many masks were in stock.

Subscribe to The Broadsheet, our newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.