HYBE has promoted Jenni Pfaff to Chief People and Transformation Officer in a newly created global role, announced on Tuesday, July 28 (Music Business Worldwide).

Pfaff moves up from HYBE America, the South Korea-headquartered company's US division, where she had held the same title since August 2025. She reports directly to HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee and remains based in Los Angeles.

The role gives Pfaff a company-wide remit. At HYBE America, her portfolio already covered recruiting, training and development, employee relations, performance management, organisational design, and internal corporate communications — a broad list that put her at the centre of how the division hired and structured itself. During her tenure she helped bring in senior leaders including Ethiopia Habtemariam, Jake Basden, Gene Whitney, and Johanna Fuentes. HYBE America Chairman and CEO Isaac Lee praised Pfaff's contributions and vision, according to MBW.

Before joining HYBE, Pfaff spent time at Warner Chappell Music — the publishing arm of Warner Music Group, which handles songwriters' royalties and licensing rather than recorded music. She was elevated to Executive Vice President of Strategy, Integration, and Operations there in 2024, overseeing global strategy, an automation and growth team, and the Business Intelligence division. Earlier in her career she held roles at PwC, Activision Blizzard, and Northrop Grumman, and she founded her own consultancy, Pfaff HR, in 2018.

Pfaff's academic background sits squarely in the people side of business. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in industrial-organizational psychology — the field that applies psychological research to workplace behaviour and structure. She also holds a certificate in Strategy Execution from Harvard Business School Online and works as a certified executive coach. Her LinkedIn profile lists her name as Jenni Pfaff (Goldstone).

The promotion comes as HYBE continues to build out its leadership ranks outside South Korea. The company behind BTS and a roster of K-pop acts has been expanding its US operations, and Pfaff's new global scope signals that talent strategy across regions will now sit with someone who has already been doing that work stateside.