Family members of chaebol owners are climbing the corporate ladder visibly faster than their peers, reaching the C-suite within a mere five years, industry data showed Wednesday.

According to an analysis by corporate tracker CEO Score, it took an average of 4.8 years for chaebol owner family members to be promoted to executive positions. The study was based on 43 family-controlled conglomerates in which both the owner parents and children participated in management.

The chaebol offspring joined their parents’ companies at an average age of 29 and gained executive titles at an average of 33.8. Also, they became president at an average age of 42.7, 14.1 years on average after starting out.

Their promotion timeline was conspicuously faster than that of their peers -- who on average became executives at 52 and presidents at 58.8.

Also, chaebol heirs made faster progress than their parents. While the first and second generations of chaebol owners took 5.1 years on average to become executives, their children and grandchildren only took 4.5 years.

Some groups were noted for promoting chaebol offspring to the executive level from the very start.

Examples from previous generations were SeAH Steel Chairman Sun-hyeong Lee and Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn.

Shinsegae Department Store President Chung Yoo-kyung also joined the C-suite from the beginning, as did her mother, Group Chairman Yoo Myung-hee.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)