Consider Chey Tae-won the US$2 billion man. According to one study by two brokerage analysts, that is roughly how much the chairman of Korean communications-to-chemicals conglomerate SK Corp is dragging down its stock-market capitalisation by his presence on the board of directors.
If SK Corp's largest shareholder gets its way, however, Mr Chey will not be around much longer to weigh on the share price.
In what could prove an important test case for the evolution of shareholder rights in South Korea - and another nail in the coffin of the nation's giant chaebol (conglomerates) - Dubai-based private capital fund Sovereign Asset Management is hoping to get Mr Chey voted out when he comes up for re-election at next Friday's annual general meeting.
At a series of recent meetings in Hong Kong, Sovereign's chief executive, James Fitter, attempted to rally support from locally based institutional investors.
Mr Fitter's argument is that, as a former convict, Mr Chey is not a suitable person to be running Korea's principal oil refiner. 'Chey personifies everything that's wrong with the chaebol model,' he says.
In 2003, Mr Chey served seven months of a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of responsibility for about US$1 billion of accounting irregularities aimed at covering up losses at subsidiary SK Global.
Despite the conviction, against which he is now appealing, Mr Chey retained his position as SK Corp's chairman. At last year's AGM he defeated a package of measures proposed by Sovereign which would have forbidden criminals from serving on the board.