NewJeans has personally spoken out against the recent change in ADOR’s CEO.
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Back on August 27, ADOR announced that Min Hee Jin would no longer be serving as CEO of the company, but that she would continue to produce NewJeans’ content as an internal director at ADOR.
On September 11, the five members of NewJeans held a surprise live broadcast on YouTube in which they firmly requested that Min Hee Jin be reinstated as CEO by September 25.
“We prepared this live broadcast because the five of us have something we really want to say,” said Hyein. “What we have to say today is ultimately directed at HYBE. We already had a meeting with company management and expressed our opinions, but based on the events that took place after the meeting, it doesn’t seem like what we wanted was properly conveyed or communicated.”
Expressing their desire to continue working with Min Hee Jin, Danielle said in English, “Even before debuting as NewJeans and through all of the time that we spent together with CEO Min Hee Jin, all of us felt that the music we wanted to make and the kind of world we wanted to build together—our vision—was similar in so many ways. With CEO Min Hee Jin, we were able to prepare each and every task with sincere hearts, and I believe it shows in our work. Putting our sincere effort into something is only possible because the people that we’re working with have trust in each other and have that same vision.
“CEO Min Hee Jin is not only the person that produces our music, but someone who makes NewJeans who we are. She discusses even the smallest details with us and explains them in ways that we can understand clearly. NewJeans has a distinct color and tone, and this was created with CEO Min Hee Jin. She is integral to NewJeans’ identity, and we all feel that she is irreplaceable.”
Hanni then shared a story of how a manager of a different HYBE group had instructed the members to ignore her, even though the idols themselves had already greeted her.
“I was waiting alone in the hallway one day,” she said, “and members of another group passed me together with one of their managers. So we greeted each other well. But when they came back out a little while later, their manager told them in front of me, ‘Ignore her.’ Even though I could hear and see everything. Thinking about it now, I still don’t understand why I need to go through something like that.”
Hanni continued, “I told our new CEO about it, but she told me that there was no proof and that it was too late to do something about it now. Seeing her try to move past it, I felt that we had lost our protector, and I felt like [our new CEO] wasn’t worried about us. And I had told her honestly about [the incident], but I felt like in an instant, I had become a liar. But before, CEO Min Hee Jin fought for us a lot. The new [executives] say on the outside that they’ll help us, but they just made excuses and said it was an incident they couldn’t do anything about.”
Emphasizing Min Hee Jin’s role in the company, Minji remarked, “Our new management says that they’ll separate production and management, but we have always operated differently from other labels… Now, Min Hee Jin does not have the power to confirm or approve everything, so how can we continue working as we were before?”
Hanni echoed the sentiment in English, stating, “The way that ADOR used to run was the business management and creative production was not separated and was [sic] factors that played and worked in harmony with each other. That’s how it worked, and it was perfectly fine. It was our way of working and our CEO’s way of producing NewJeans’ content, which a lot of you were able to enjoy and appreciate. But now that she’s no longer CEO, these factors that should have continued to work together in harmony are now being seen as two different areas of work.”
Danielle chimed in, “As I said before, it was our dream to perform the music we wanted to make together with Min Hee Jin, and we were working hard for that dream. But now we can no longer achieve those dreams, and we may not even get to carry out all the plans we’ve made.”
Haerin went on, “I personally want to keep working with the people around me that helped me grow mentally and helped me feel the life force within myself, for whom I am grateful, but I can’t understand why external forces keep interfering and disturbing us. I don’t know if I need to understand it.”
Describing how they learned about Min Hee Jin’s dismissal, Hyein recalled, “We found out that CEO [Min Hee Jin] had been dismissed on the day of, through an article. It was so sudden and unexpected for all of the members that we had a very hard time, honestly. As artists under HYBE, that sort of unilateral announcement from the company made us certain that they don’t respect us at all. And within that confusing situation, we heard from our manager that our new CEO wanted to greet us.”
Finally, the group wrapped up the broadcast by using firm language to request Min Hee Jin’s reinstatement as CEO.
Hanni said in English, “We have the choice to choose how we will react to each situation, and we are not going to follow HYBE’s every orders blindly. We are more than well aware that this is getting in the way of our work and that we should be treated much, much better than how we are right now. And it’s very hard to believe that they are truly sincere about wanting to help us continue to be able to work with our CEO Min Hee Jin. Despite her being in the midst of all this current legal conflict, she’s expected to plan and creatively produce our future endeavors in just only two months, which I personally think makes no sense at all. We don’t want to hear all the empty words of how they’re going to help us continue to work with CEO Min Hee Jin. And we all want is this legal conflict to be resolved and have our working environment returned back to normal, the way it was before.”
Hyein firmly continued, “Please return CEO [Min Hee Jin] to her position, and please return ADOR to the way it was before, not this unfamiliar new environment with these unfamiliar new people.”
Danielle added, “From a human perspective, I’d like you to stop bothering our CEO Min Hee Jin. Honestly, she’s so pitiful, and this just makes HYBE look like an inhumane company. What would we learn from a company like this?”
Minji concluded, “What we want is the original ADOR, where Min Hee Jin is CEO and where the management and production are combined. The reason we’re making this request is because this is the [only] way we can get along with HYBE, without fighting with the company. If our opinions have been properly conveyed, we hope that Chairman Bang and HYBE will make the wise decision to return ADOR to how it was by the 25th. Thank you for listening to us.”
