[THE INVESTOR] Lee Hae-jin, co-founder of web portal giant Naver, will accompany President Moon Jae-in on his trip to Europe later this month, according to sources on Oct. 11

Moon is slated to visit five European nations, including France, Italy, and Belgium from Oct. 13-21. He will also visit Vatican to meet with Pope Francis on Oct. 18.

“Naver is one of the large Korean companies to have entered the French market, and that is why he has been selected as a member of the economic delegation,” a company official said.

Lee Hae-jin, global investment officer of Naver.

Lee, who now leads Naver’s foray into the European markets as global investment officer, has been staying in France, looking for new growth engines.

Since it established its French R&D base Naver France in June last year, the web portal operator has been speeding up the pace to seek its next growth engine, investing in companies there.

The company took over Xerox Research Center Europe, an R&D firm specialized in artificial intelligence, and invested 200 million euros (US$230 million) in Korelya Capital, a startup capital fund run by former French digital economy minister Fleur Pellerin.

The list of other entrepreneurs joining the president has not been announce yet.

Meanwhile, Lee failed to participate in a parliamentary audit as a witness on Oct. 10 where lawmakers dealt with a range of subjects in the IT segment, including the so-called Google Tax issue and an online opinion-rigging scandal on the Naver portal.

The lawmakers urged Lee to appear in the next inspection session scheduled on Oct. 26, or they would file a complaint against him.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)