Yuna Kim

I think that from Yuna's mom's perspective, having an ex-CEO who took care of Yuna would feel like a great support.
On the other hand, the said person's act would mean a betrayal seen from IB Sports' perspective, which touches upon at least the borderline of the original contract. The fairest resolution seems like having him/her step away for the designated length of time (as long as the person has other means to make a living) so that no one can complain.

yunasashafan said:

Wow..so, IB is now being attacked because they are exploiting Yuna and 1/3 is an unfair share for the easiest job ever of sorting and scheduling the hundreds of offers she gets?

Aren't you forgetting that the contract with the 1/3 share was agreed on and signed by Yuna? Now it's unfair but it wasn't unfair three years ago when IB offered to pay all her training expenses and made it possible for her to move to Canada and train at the Cricket Club? Didn't Yuna find that offer so appealing that she got herself in trouble with IMG Korea to be able to take it? May I ask you then, if Yuna was already getting so many endorsement deals, why did she need to sign up with IB? She could have instituted her own agency three years ago.


IB made a very smart investment and was lately reaping the rewards of that investment. You can't fault them for that! At the beginning of the contract the benefit of the deal was clearly on Yuna's side but IB managed to get more than they bargained for at the end. That's smart business. Now that Yuna is not seeing much financial gain in staying with IB, she is moving away from them. Again, no one can fault her for that. Business is business. Let's not make IB look like the bad guys after all they've done to help Yuna. Not everybody whose business/interest does not align with Yuna's is an evil person. I am sure Yuna would agree with that.

And yes, you do need a newspaper article to support your claim when you're unfairly attacking people.

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I am not disputing your point that business is business. Yuna and IB have been tied to one another by the contracts they initially agreed upon. However, my point is whether IB lived up to their paycheck, which was 1/3 of her after tax income, in terms of the service they provided as her agent - their end of the deal. Again, fetching endorsement deal was one thing, and as I said they delivered, while the task must have been pretty easy for them because there is not much sales work they had to do. There is no question about that. I don't know if you know much about Yuna's pre-IB days, but one of main reasons her mom decided to seek for professional management help was to handle all the requests that began to fill up her phone about endorsement deals after Yuna's early career wins followed by increasing media exposure. If IB wants to boastful about their providing Yuna with training expenses, they should also show they have taken considerable risk associated with Yuna. Yuna was already on the roll by the time they signed the contract and so it was certainty IB would make more than they invested through her, and IB made sure all their expenses recovered from Yuna the same year even before they accounted their cuts from her revenue as if they were banks. Arranging her commercial schedules and recommending a few staff members for her Toronto training is certainly some work involved, but that just does not justify their fat paycheck.

As for why IB is being trashed here from her fans, IB has been criticized many times in the past for their rather seemingly inadequate - sometimes flatout odd and amateurish - handling of other responsibilities surrounding Yuna as her agent. One example; IB held an official press conference right after 4CC 2008 that she would not attempt 3Loop in competitions until the Olympics are over. That was two days after Yuna said she would keep challenging herself by attempting it in future competitions. Leaving the awkward timing aside, this kind of press conference is just unheard of, let alone in figure skating, but any sports whatsoever. It is like Beckham's agent having a press conference telling reporters Beckham will not attempt headers anymore because that doesn't seem to be working for him. To this nonsense, not only her fans in Korea but also some of the reporters present were flabbergasted. If you are an agent, you might want to say she is not only up for the challenge, she might even try quad loops next year. Thanks to them, Yuna had an embarrassing moment of reverting things she said two days before in front of the press. There is another incident about her retirement. A week before the Olympics, suddenly a news about her possible retirement broke out. The source was IB; they said in a press interview Yuna might be retiring after the Games. Up to that point she had never mentioned anything about retirement in her words. IB, who is supposed to sort out speculative rumors surrounding her, became the very source of a rumor, and that was just a week before the Olympics. General public who were eager to seeing her Olympic performance were confused at the news for why now, and I bet many of her sponsors were too. These are just two of numerous incidents when IB made many people scratch their heads or frustrated or even angry. You should understand that many people here have been upset with IB not because their business interest is not aligned with Yuna, but because their business interest was supposed to be aligned with hers while she was their client and many times they seemed to have failed in demonstrating that point, purposely or for their incompetency. Many people here are upset with IB because despite all the signs of their incompetency throughout the years - by the way, one who was in the interview today sort of admitted their lack of expertise indirectly as well - IB is said to have been taking 1/3 of her earnings, which is way high for any elite sports management deal measures in any countries in the world, let alone for IB's planning of a lawsuit on the executive who quit apparently to help Yuna's side setting up their business. Again, IB side has good reasons to do so as a disciplinary example for its employees and IB said it does not concern Yuna. However, considering the potential damage their bitter lawsuit against this guy might inflict on Yuna after all the excess cash she has brought to them and their shareholders for the last three years, IB and their action deserve to be trashed hard.

If IB has not been leaking false information about Orser, not been babbling about their business with Yuna almost everyday for the last week although their legal issue does not concern Yuna, and let the lawsuit go, no one probably has said anything about IB other than what a lucky chaps they have been to have made an extremely nice return for minimal risk they have taken with her, despite how little they have done for her.

Bennett said:

I think that from Yuna's mom's perspective, having an ex-CEO who took care of Yuna would feel like a great support.
On the other hand, the said person's act would mean a betrayal seen from IB Sports' perspective, which touches upon at least the borderline of the original contract. The fairest resolution seems like having him/her step away for the designated length of time (as long as the person has other means to make a living) so that no one can complain.

Click to expand...

Actually, under the contract the former employee of IB cannot make an agency contract with Yuna for 2 years. But he can work in the related industry without making an agency contract because it's not the former employee but Yuna's mother who made a contract with her as an agency. He will only remain as an advisory role. Technically IB is wrong in this case. But who knows.

cooper said:

Actually, under the contract the former employee of IB cannot make an agency contract with Yuna for 2 years. But he can work in the related industry without making an agency contract because it's not the former employee but Yuna's mother who made a contract with her as an agency. He will only remain as an advisory role. Technically IB is wrong in this case. But who knows.

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Technically, it may be so, but essentially, it seems the borderline. Hope they can hire ppl who are not controversial.

In other Yuna news....

USA TODAY

Figure skater Yu-na to help Korean Olympic bid

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-04-28-1571610408_x.htm

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — South Korean figure skating gold medalist Kim Yu-na could play a key role in the chase for another top Olympic prize.

Cho said he expects Kim who won the gold in Vancouver at the age of 19 to travel to Durban, South Africa, as part of the bid team for the vote by the International Olympic Committee in July 2011.

That would put two figure skating gold medalists in the spotlight: Two-time champion Katarina Witt is a top leader of Munich's 2018 bid. The third candidate city is Annecy, France.

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Good luck Yuna! :agree:

cooper said:

In other Yuna news....

USA TODAY

Figure skater Yu-na to help Korean Olympic bid

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-04-28-1571610408_x.htm



Good luck Yuna! :agree:

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Hm...good news? I guess.

But, I hope she doesn't do the speech. It will be so stressful for her.

GoPC2018 said:

Hm...good news? I guess.

But, I hope she doesn't do the speech. It will be so stressful for her.

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I don't know but I think it will be necessary, like what David Beckham did for London. LOL. It will be interesting to see Yuna campaigning for her country, talking to the media, to sports leaders, etc, and to think she's only 19! LOL.

This is my last post on this topic. I really think we should move on, but before I do that..

parma said:

I am not disputing your point that business is business. Yuna and IB have been tied to one another by the contracts they initially agreed upon. However, my point is whether IB lived up to their paycheck, which was 1/3 of her after tax income, in terms of the service they provided as her agent - their end of the deal. Again, fetching endorsement deal was one thing, and as I said they delivered, while the task must have been pretty easy for them because there is not much sales work they had to do. There is no question about that. I don't know if you know much about Yuna's pre-IB days, but one of main reasons her mom decided to seek for professional management help was to handle all the requests that began to fill up her phone about endorsement deals after Yuna's early career wins followed by increasing media exposure. If IB wants to boastful about their providing Yuna with training expenses, they should also show they have taken considerable risk associated with Yuna. Yuna was already on the roll by the time they signed the contract and so it was certainty IB would make more than they invested through her, and IB made sure all their expenses recovered from Yuna the same year even before they accounted their cuts from her revenue as if they were banks. Arranging her commercial schedules and recommending a few staff members for her Toronto training is certainly some work involved, but that just does not justify their fat paycheck.

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My point was that Yuna and her mom at the time must have thought the deal is fine since they signed on it. And as far as I am concerned, training with Brian and David might not have happened (financially) if not for IB. That in itself is worth giving IB all the money they asked for.

parma said:

As for why IB is being trashed here from her fans, IB has been criticized many times in the past for their rather seemingly inadequate - sometimes flatout odd and amateurish - handling of other responsibilities surrounding Yuna as her agent. One example; IB held an official press conference right after 4CC 2008 that she would not attempt 3Loop in competitions until the Olympics are over. That was two days after Yuna said she would keep challenging herself by attempting it in future competitions. Leaving the awkward timing aside, this kind of press conference is just unheard of, let alone in figure skating, but any sports whatsoever. It is like Beckham's agent having a press conference telling reporters Beckham will not attempt headers anymore because that doesn't seem to be working for him. To this nonsense, not only her fans in Korea but also some of the reporters present were flabbergasted. If you are an agent, you might want to say she is not only up for the challenge, she might even try quad loops next year. Thanks to them, Yuna had an embarrassing moment of reverting things she said two days before in front of the press. There is another incident about her retirement. A week before the Olympics, suddenly a news about her possible retirement broke out. The source was IB; they said in a press interview Yuna might be retiring after the Games. Up to that point she had never mentioned anything about retirement in her words. IB, who is supposed to sort out speculative rumors surrounding her, became the very source of a rumor, and that was just a week before the Olympics. General public who were eager to seeing her Olympic performance were confused at the news for why now, and I bet many of her sponsors were too. These are just two of numerous incidents when IB made many people scratch their heads or frustrated or even angry..

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This is why I was asking for information, preferably in the form of an article link, that would justify your statement that IB did not deserve the pay they're getting from Yuna. Your response was simply that you do not need any information to assess that, hence my objection. Still the reasons you're stating are not enough to justify the attacks on IB, in my opinion. The "news" about her possible retirement was not exactly news. Every athlete considers the possibility of retirement after they've won the Olympics. And you may have missed it but Yuna said herself that three years ago her plan was to retire after Vancouver since she was really miserable at the time. So what? They said she may retire? Well, she may and she may not..I am sorry but I think anyone who was shocked by her possible retirement before the Olympics is being either too naive or too dramatic. I prefer to stick to the facts, although even real facts are hard to fish out of the whole melodrama.

As for the triple loop incident, ... miscommunication happens. And guess what? We haven't seen Yuna's triple loop since, so IB was actually telling the truth.

parma said:

You should understand that many people here have been upset with IB not because their business interest is not aligned with Yuna, but because their business interest was supposed to be aligned with hers while she was their client and many times they seemed to have failed in demonstrating that point, purposely or for their incompetency. Many people here are upset with IB because despite all the signs of their incompetency throughout the years - by the way, one who was in the interview today sort of admitted their lack of expertise indirectly as well.

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Everybody makes mistakes. You have to remember that IB was new to the world of figure skating, so they're bound to make a mistake or two. I still don't see how IB failed to align Yuna's interest along with theirs. We will never know what Yuna's income would have been without IB, so it's completely illogical to assume that they completely failed her because of a couple of missteps. Now she realizes that she does not need them anymore, so she moved away.

parma said:

..let alone for IB's planning of a lawsuit on the executive who quit apparently to help Yuna's side setting up their business. Again, IB side has good reasons to do so as a disciplinary example for its employees and IB said it does not concern Yuna. However, considering the potential damage their bitter lawsuit against this guy might inflict on Yuna after all the excess cash she has brought to them and their shareholders for the last three years, IB and their action deserve to be trashed hard.

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Seriously, their vice-president is leaving them with their golden account holder to set-up a competing agency, and you think they should congratulate him on that? How would Coca Cola react if their CEO who has access to the secret recipe suddenly left to join Pepsi? In all businesses, there is a "revolving door policy" that, in most cases, prohibits employees from accepting any form of employment from a competing agency. Yuna is lucky in that they found a loop-hole. Just look at how people reacted at a mere rumor that Orser might be considering coaching Mao.

parma said:

If IB has not been leaking false information about Orser.. .

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That I agree with, they had no right to leak that, except that the information was not exactly false. But this whole mess happened after Yuna's split from IB, so it my have been someone's petty attempt at getting back at her...or not!

parma said:

although their legal issue does not concern Yuna, and let the lawsuit go, no one probably has said anything about IB other than what a lucky chaps they have been to have made an extremely nice return for minimal risk they have taken with her, despite how little they have done for her.

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No one in their right mind would expect that to happen... this is business/money we're talking about. IB was wronged by one of its employees and has every right to go after him. Yuna and her mom probably saw this coming since they seem to be prepared with a legal response.

I may sound like I am defending IB, but I am just trying to put some sense into all this drama. In any case I am getting really uncomfortable discussing Yuna's private financial matters, so I will refrain from further comments about all this drama and go back to watching Yuna and Mao's epic Olympic performances....

ETA: sorry guys about the extremely long post. If only I can write that much in my paper that is due tomorrow..

yunasashafan said:

No one in their right mind would expect that to happen... this is business/money we're talking about. IB was wronged by one of its employees and has every right to go after him. Yuna and her mom probably saw this coming since they seem to be prepared with a legal response.

I may sound like I am defending IB, but I am just trying to put some sense into all this drama. In any case I am getting really uncomfortable discussing Yuna's private financial matters, so I will refrain from further comments about all this drama and go back to watching Yuna and Mao's epic Olympic performances....

ETA: sorry guys about the extremely long post. If only I can write that much in my paper that is due tomorrow..

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Uh...not really. There's something very unsavory about an employer preventing an employee from being gainfully employed elsewhere, esp. when there's no evidence that IB Sports would be financially detrimented since Yuna would have independently moved on her own regardless of whether Gu followed. IB Sports is just petty being and unreasonable, and I don't see why they should be, since Yuna deciding not to continue with IB Sports was to be expected, since her contract was to expire this month. Moreoever, no court will side with IB Sports, esp. with Yuna being such a well-liked public figure. The only thing IB Sports will accomplish is to drag both their names through the mud and likewise their reputation will be detrimented because no athlete will want to sign with a company that uses such strongarm, underhanded tactics. They should drop the lawsuit.

In other news Yuna is busy selling Hyundai Motors at Busan Motor Show today!

http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/04/29/KHY_2831.jpg
http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/04/29/KHY_2851.jpg
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab219/YunaBliss/2010042912001994334_1.jpg
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab219/YunaBliss/201004291256214439_1.jpg

more http://www.newsis.com/gallery/?pID=1&cID=10500

http://ps.news.nate.com/photo/slideShow?cid=180895&mid=s0703

sleepymom said:

Believe me, what Yuna's mom told on the paper didn't come off as complaining at all in the Korean newspaper. I don't know why you get the impression like that, but it was as PC as it gets.



Probably some connection with newspaper reporters , which is plausible just by looking at various articles nowadays. But I doubt the company has that much power in anyway, and to do any kind of figure skating business in Korea currently it's all Yuna related. - Super match is exception only because it's Hyundai card show for their card customers, so majority of the people to see the show has free tickets. -

For the legal case, we'll have to wait and see, but I don't think they'll win definitely. They seem to list several possible causes for the sue, but preventing the employees from working in the same business for a certain period is not something that can be easily winnable in the court, because there's conflict with the freedom to choose jobs. By suing the person here, what IB can have is the emotional satisfaction of persecuting this person, but what IB can lose is the company image. IB sports is not like IMG Korea, which was really small that losing face in the society was not such a big deal - and Yuna wasn't superstar like today.- And they have to consider relation with Yuna, if they still wants to do FS business in KR.

All said and done, maybe I'm being too optimistic, but honestly only thing that's on the way of this company is that VP from IB. That's not too bad as the beginning of any company. And there are tons of good things, one is that this company can focus solely on figure skating development in Korea. She was doing the jr. support even now, but now she can hire more people and the company can find talented skaters and support them to bloom, thus making Korean figure skating scene bloom. Considering this is something Yuna always wanted to do, this sounds like a natural progress of matters.

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I agree with everything you posted. Yuna or more likely her mom probably wants to foster new figure skating talent, and subsequently, the development of figure skating in Korea. This is really in line with Yuna/her mom's long term goals, I think.

I love the silhouette of her outfit which really flatters her beautiful figure but am not so keen on the rather cheapy looking fabric/ buttons!

cooper said:

In other news Yuna is busy selling Hyundai Motors at Busan Motor Show today!

http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/04/29/KHY_2831.jpg
http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/04/29/KHY_2851.jpg
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab219/YunaBliss/2010042912001994334_1.jpg
http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab219/YunaBliss/201004291256214439_1.jpg

more http://www.newsis.com/gallery/?pID=1&cID=10500

http://ps.news.nate.com/photo/slideShow?cid=180895&mid=s0703

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she looks great~ BTW, is that new Elantra? I have 07 one. LOL~ still like it though~

Yuna has made TIME's 2010 list of 100 most influential people (in the Heroes section). Michelle Kwan penned the tribute. She was in the top three. As someone said, she never misses a podium!

Unfortunately, Joannie didn't make the final cut. She's still a leader in my book. If Yuna was an exemplar of grace under pressure, Joannie was an icon of grace transcending heartbreak. If only more of our political leaders could follow their examples.

Robeye said:

Yuna has made TIME's 2010 list of 100 most influential people (in the Heroes section). Michelle Kwan penned the tribute. She was in the top three. As someone said, she never misses a podium!

Unfortunately, Joannie didn't make the final cut. She's still a leader in my book. If Yuna was an exemplar of grace under pressure, Joannie was an icon of grace transcending heartbreak. If only more of our political leaders could follow their examples.

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That made me laugh but sooo true!

Robeye said:

Yuna has made TIME's 2010 list of 100 most influential people (in the Heroes section). Michelle Kwan penned the tribute. She was in the top three. As someone said, she never misses a podium!

Unfortunately, Joannie didn't make the final cut. She's still a leader in my book. If Yuna was an exemplar of grace under pressure, Joannie was an icon of grace transcending heartbreak. If only more of our political leaders could follow their examples.

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OMG... really? MK penned it? Wow... and MK is Yu-na's idol! I wonder if Yu-na will read MK's words and what she'll feel like...

yunasashafan said:

This is my last post on this topic. ...

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Everyone understands this is business. You don't have to keep repeating that as if no one is getting it. The fact of the case is simple and most people in Korean media and and general public who are interested in this topic seem to agree;

IB Sports had a contract with Yuna that anyone in the industry would die for; not only the after-fact sense in which their return on investment for that three year period was at least 200%, but the real number should be much more than that, but because she was already making her name by the time they signed the contract. Again, IB having made an extremely good investment wouldn't have been an issue if they delivered what was expected from an agent. I am not saying this about them as the agent of Yuna, but of any athlete. Their representative work is sloppy at best. Take this from me or news media, I don't care. The news articles about this is easily obtainable if you can read Korean, so if you are interested, do your own research.

As a consumer who buy other people's service, you expect a certain level of quality in the service you pay for, especially when the charge is high. IB is considered by many that they have been way overpaid for the quality of their service. That is one thing; all they are saying is IB has been overcharging Yuna; and then, as Yuna leaves them, IB began all this media circus, spreading rumors about Orser, talking to the media about their deals with Yuna almost everyday and propagating their own takes about her leave, and relating Yuna to their foreseeable lawsuit against a former employee when she has nothing to do with it. IB is doing a damage control in the worst fashion imaginable, at the expense of their former client whom they overcharged. Their course of action for the last one week has left a bad aftertaste in everyone's mouth.

If you still don't get why people are trashing IB hard, try to remember last time you had a bad haircut from a hair stylist. And imagine the stylist goes around the town after your last visit saying he/she didn't do anything wrong and says things about you and your taste in hairdo. If this analogy doesn't convince you, I don't know what will.

Lilith11 said:

OMG... really? MK penned it? Wow... and MK is Yu-na's idol! I wonder if Yu-na will read MK's words and what she'll feel like...

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Yep. And how awesome is that!

Congrats again to Yuna!

Congrats to Yuna for making TIME's list. Great to see Kwan's tribute and I am sure Yuna would be triple touched by it. TIME sure knows how to do it right.

And ITA with Joannie. I'm still getting emotional by watching her SP in Olympics. Her courage and fortitude will be remembered for long too.

Lilith11 said:

OMG... really? MK penned it? Wow... and MK is Yu-na's idol! I wonder if Yu-na will read MK's words and what she'll feel like...

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Hi Lilith!

Michelle mentions in the tribute that Yuna told her that as a young girl, she'd memorize MK's program and pretend she was the Kween.

(Oh, I'm now keeping meticulous track of your pearls of wisdom, as per your rather severe rebuke . Care to drop any this time around?