Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: CHAE-UNG UM

In January, Um became CEO of StarKist, the packaged tuna and chicken company that moved its headquarters to Northern Virginia last year from Pittsburgh.
Owned by Dongwon Industries, a South Korean seafood company, StarKist has 4,000 employees globally and revenue of $210 million.

Having joined StarKist in November 2022, Um replaced former CEO Andrew Choe. Formerly a senior vice president of procurement at Seoul-based LG Electronics, Um came to StarKist with a challenge already in front of him: a lawsuit against the company, its parent and Del Monte, claiming that they conspired to fix and raise the price of canned tuna in the United States. In April, a federal judge granted a partial summary judgment on some of the claims, narrowing the lawsuit filed in Southern California. StarKist pleaded guilty to price fixing and was fined $100 million in 2018, and the current class action lawsuit by direct purchasers, including grocery stores, is an outgrowth of the federal price-fixing investigation.

A West Point graduate with an international MBA from Baldwin-Wallace University, Um has worked for Westinghouse, Merck, Dade Behring and Praxair.