Leadership Shakeup at Coupang as CEO Resigns After Data Leak

Coupang bids farewell to its CEO, Park Dae-jun, who resigns after the huge data breach in November. The South Korean ecommerce giant saw around 33.7 million customer accounts leaked, which has become a national scandal.

The South Korean company announced Wednesday that the managing director of its U.S. parent company, Harold Rogers, will replace Dae-jun as interim CEO.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said the government will conduct a “thorough investigation” and take action against “any illegalities” committed by the company. In fact, earlier this week, South Korean police raided the company’s offices in Seoul as part of their investigation.

Coupang replaces its CEO with the managing director of its U.S. parent company Harold Rogers

Coupang recorded the massive data breach on November 18th, with about 33.7 million customer accounts affected. The personal leak included customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, their shipping addresses and some of their purchase histories. However, according to the company, no payment details or login credentials were affected.

The unauthorized access to the personal information began on June 24th via offshore servers, and according to national media, one of Coupang’s former employees is suspected of the leak, which the company reported to the police.

The company, known as the Amazon of South Korea, publicly apologized when the leak came to light. Meanwhile, the government is still investigating whether the company ever breached security regulations.

According to the latest published data, corresponding to the third quarter of 2025 (ended September 30th), Coupang recorded a turnover of $9.267 billion, up 18% compared to the same period last year, when it posted a turnover of $7.866 billion.

The South Korean company also saw its profit soar in the period, up 48%. Whereas in the third quarter of 2024 it posted a profit of $64 million, in the same period this year the figure has risen to $95 million. Adjusted gross operating profit (ebitda) also increased by 20% to $413 million.