*This content was translated by AI.
KT has officially appointed Park Yoon-young, the 30-year KT man, as its new head.
KT announced on the 31st that it held the 44th regular general shareholders' meeting at KT Research and Development Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and voted on the agenda of appointing candidate Park as CEO. The appointment agenda was passed with 97.3 percent approval. The term of office is three years until 2029, and CEO Park did not attend the general shareholders' meeting for personal reasons.
Born in 1962, Park graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in civil engineering and joined KT's predecessor, Korea Telecom, in 1992. Since then, he has served as the head of KT's corporate business division, the head of the Future Business Development Team, the head of the Convergence Research Institute, and the head of the home customer division, and has served at KT for more than 30 years. CEO Park is considered to have shifted KT's growth engine from the existing company-to-consumer (B2C) central structure to company-to-business (B2B) and led digital innovation (DX). As KT has put artificial intelligence (AI) innovation (AX) to the forefront at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) held in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year, it is expected that the AI business will be accelerated based on CEO Park's AX capabilities.
CEO Park sent a letter to executives and employees on the same day and said, "We will develop KT into a national telecommunications service provider responsible for the present and future of the Korean network and a 'AX platform company' that leads the AI era," adding, "This year is the starting point for change, and the next three years will be a time to prove results."
Representative Park suggested two pillars of "solid essence" and "sure growth" as strategies to lead change. CEO Park said, "We will spare no investment in network, service quality, and information security. We will also preemptively prepare future technologies such as 6th generation (G), satellite, AILAN, and quantum security."
Park is expected to accelerate personnel and organizational reform immediately after taking office. CEO Park is reportedly considering reducing the number of executives currently around 100 by up to 30 percent. Recently, Oh Seung-pil, head of the technology innovation division (CTO), recently announced his resignation, and Jung Woo-jin, head of the strategy and business consulting division, is also mentioned as a replacement target. In January this year, Shin Dong-hoon, former chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO), moved to NCAI.
The organizational system, which consists of seven sectors, seven offices, and seven regional headquarters, is also expected to change. The possibility of consolidation centered on regional headquarters is mentioned, such as reducing the seven-member regional headquarters to four levels and linking the regional reporting system with the headquarters. The Total Sales Task Force (TF), introduced under former CEO Kim Young-seop, is expected to be abolished.
The composition of KT's board of directors, which will support Park's system, will also be drastically changed. On this day, Park Hyun-jin, CEO of KT Millie, was appointed as an in-house director. Outside directors were Kim Young-han, a professor of electronic information engineering at Soongsil University in the future technology field, Kwon Myung-sook, former CEO of Intel Korea in the management field, and Seo Jin-seok, a part-time adviser to OCI Holdings and Bukwang Pharmaceutical in the accounting field. The environmental, social and governance (ESG) sectors are expected to remain vacant for the time being as Yoon Jong-soo, environmental adviser to Kim & Chang's law firm, gave up his second term.
Chairman Kim Young-seop, who is retiring from the leadership, said on the same day, "I deeply apologize for causing a lot of concern due to the infringement accident that occurred last year," adding, "We are doing our best to innovate zero trust-based information security along with reorganizing the company-wide security system." It will be reborn as a company that customers can trust," he said.
At the shareholders' meeting, a total of nine agendas were proposed, including the appointment of CEO Park, approval of △ financial statements, partial change of the articles of incorporation, △ appointment of internal and external directors, and all were processed as the original plan. Last year, the consolidated financial statements were approved with annual sales of 28.2442 trillion won and operating profit of 2.4691 trillion won. The dividend per share in the fourth quarter of the year was confirmed at 600 won and will be paid on April 15.
<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>
*This content was translated by AI.
