As a candidate nominated by MBK Partners-Young Poong alliance for an audit committee seat at Korea Zinc, Park Yoo-kyung finds herself at the center of one of the country’s most closely watched battles for corporate control. The zinc smelter is due to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Sept. 9, where participants will vote on the election of an audit committee member as the alliance vies for control of the board with the company’s chairman, Choi Yun-beom. Young Poong and MBK Partners, the smelter’s largest shareholders, are backing Park, while Choi’s camp is fielding Baek In-kyoo, a former chairman of Deloitte Korea’s board. For Park, however, the significance of the September vote goes far beyond the bruising battle between the two sides. After spending nearly two decades at APG Asset Management as its Asia-Pacific head of responsible governance and investment, she sees Korea Zinc as a real-world test case for whether the country’s recent Commercial Act revision can translate into tangible changes in how corporate governance is practiced. “The idea that good gove
