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Sep 17 2007 12:00am EDT

It's Angry Executives Day

On the day when Chris Albrecht, the girlfriend-abusing former HBO executive, landed a new job at Ted Forstmann's talent agency, news comes of another anger-management-deficient manager coping with his dark side.

In South Korea, a chemicals and construction magnate stepped down as chief executive of his conglomerate's flagship company after being sentenced to 18 months in prison for having abused some bar workers.

Kim Seung-youn, chairman of conglomerate Hanwha Group, resigned as C.E.O. of Hanwha Corp. because South Korean law wisely forbids convicts to run companies that handle explosives. Hanwha supplies gunpowder to South Korea's military.

The company said that Kim also plans to resign as chief executive of Hanwha Engineering & Construction Corp., which sometimes uses explosives.

A court convicted Kim in July of assaulting some off-duty bar workers who were allegedly involved in an altercation with his son earlier this year, the Associated Press reports. The judgment said Kim threatened the workers with an electronic shock device and hit one with a steel pipe.

While a South Korean judge has suspended the jail sentence because of Kim's health problems—the company says he is afflicted with depression, insomnia, and, er, impulse control disorders—the conviction stands and the business ban is in force.

Albrecht, meanwhile, plans to join IMG, the talent agency owned by Forstmann, the New York Times reported.

Albrecht, the former chief of HBO who helped develop hits like The Sopranos and Sex and the City, is planning to run IMG's global media unit and to to start an investment fund with Forstmann

by Mark Stein


Laura Rich is a co-founder of Recessionwire, which provides news, advice, perspective and humor about the recession and the recovery.
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