Min Hee Jin: "NewJeans mother" conflicts with HYBE, SM's "idea bank"

Min Hee Jin used to be the creative director of SM Entertainment, where she was responsible for building the brands of groups such as SNSD, Shinee, f(x), Exo and Red Velvet. Currently, she is managing the girl group NewJeans at ADOR.

The hottest thing on social media right now is the fight between the leading entertainment group HYBE and Min Hee Jin - the female CEO who created NewJeans. Information began to spread on the morning of April 22, the executive board of ADOR and Min Hee Jin were investigated by HYBE and asked to resign due to a plot to take over management and reveal business secrets.

Currently, HYBE owns 80% of ADOR's shares, the remaining 20% is held by the ADOR board of directors, Min Hee Jin alone has been granted 18% by 2023. The dispute over management rights between women creates success. NewJeans' success with the largest entertainment group today makes people restless.

On the same afternoon, Min Hee Jin and ADOR gave a response denying the audit from HYBE, revealing that the conflict originated from "the plagiarism controversy of the group's subsidiaries". Min Hee Jin confirmed that HYBE plagiarized NewJeans for the new girl group ILLIT. ADOR's announcement strongly attacked ILLIT's image and flooded NewJeans with controversy. Confronting HYBE alone, Min Hee Jin made people curious about her identity. So who is this woman?

Born in 1979, Min Hee Jin is a powerful face of Kpop in recent years. Before being CEO of ADOR, Min Hee Jin worked as creative director of SM for 11 years and created a series of unique concepts for SNSD, f(x), SHINee, Red Velvet, EXO,... She was recognized Such as SM's "idea bank", contributing to creating new trends for cover designs, posters and the main style of albums. Min Hee Jin is recognized by experts for her ability to turn the entire process from planning, production and promotion into a compelling visual story.

The success of SNSD and SHINee all had the "hand" of Min Hee Jin. The colorful concept with multi-colored skinny jeans that helps SNSD become a true "modern girl" in the MV Gee is Min Hee Jin's idea.

With SHINee, she has varied many experiments since the group was still a rookie. Min Hee Jin guides SHINee towards the "non-idol idol" inspiration. Everything about SHINee from posters, video trailers, and album covers contains a hidden message through every detail.

The group most closely associated with Min Hee Jin's name at SM is f(x). During the years of accompanying 5 girls, Min Hee Jin turned f(x) into the most unique group in Kpop. f(x)'s concepts vary widely, ranging from retro, punk, rock,...

Coming to Red Velvet, Min Hee Jin made a special impression with Red Flavor and Peek-A-Boo . The brilliant summer concept inspired by fruit slices caused a summer fever in 2017, bringing a famous summer song to Red Velvet. In the same year, Peek-A-Boo brought the opposite feeling when building the MV into a "winter apartment". In addition, MV series such as Bad Boy, Russian Roulette,... are also highly appreciated for their images and back stories, earning the title "concept queen" of the 3rd generation for Red Velvet.

Diverse and flexible in ideas, Min Hee Jin chooses a unique path, breaking away from the usual framework. The products she makes all contain many hidden messages, mysteries and arouse curiosity. When Min Hee Jin left SM, many fans considered this to be a big loss for the company.

Coming to the famous entertainment group that is "unlucky" with girl groups, HYBE has had great success with BTS but has not built a worthy girl group. Min Hee Jin brought an outstandingly successful NewJeans to HYBE. Incubating the idea for 3 years, the experiments have reaped sweet results.

In 2021, HYBE invested 300 billion VND for Min Hee Jin to establish a subsidiary company ADOR, and at the same time launched the girl group NewJeans. Here, Min Hee Jin has the right to decide and manage everything from strategy, production to artist promotion.

In July 2022, NewJeans debuted in a way "unlike anyone else". Min Hee Jin stole the show with a group introduction with a 5-minute MV, no trailer, no teasing images. At that time, people went "crazy" because of the extremely new breeze of NewJeans. 5 girls brought the Y2K storm to Korea and made it impossible to ignore.

The girl group "conceived" by Min Hee Jin was successful with their first product. Then came a series of hits that achieved Perfect All-Kill, creating a global dance trend. In just the first year of operation, NewJeans has brought a series of overwhelming musical achievements.

The 5-member girl group dominates global digital music, is highly appreciated by leading music magazines and "sweeps" Daesang at award ceremonies at the end of 2023. NewJeans covers from Korea to the US and Japan, setting foot across all the biggest music markets.

After BTS enlisted, NewJeans was the main group that HYBE "push" on all fronts. The success of NewJeans makes ADOR the most potential subsidiary of the group even though it only manages one artist. After launching NewJeans, ADOR's revenue increased from 18.6 billion won to 110.3 billion won in one year. Revenue grew by nearly 100 billion won just by launching an affiliated music group.

Behind NewJeans' success formula is Min Hee Jin. The former SM creative director spent all his accumulated resources to build a powerful team to make products for NewJeans.

Accordingly, Min Hee Jin is the most powerful person at ADOR. During the fight against HYBE, Korean media revealed that ADOR employees defied risks to separate from the group with Min Hee Jin. A representative in the music industry said Min Hee Jin seemed to be "worshiped" while in ADOR.

Min Hee Jin was "exposed" by HYBE staff, SM got involved, accused of "sinister" Quỳnh Như08:28:13 23/04/2024Amid the ongoing dispute between HYBE and Min Hee Jin, posts related to the mother of NewJeans and ADOR on Blind, a job community that authenticates members' identities through company emails in Korea, are being dug up.