POSCO's First Female President Lee Yoo-kyung: "Co-Growth with Partners... Will Strengthen Supply Chain"

President Choi Jung-woo's Commitment to 'Hiring Female Talent' Leads to CEO Appointment
First Female College Graduate New Hire Class of 1990
Significant Role in 'Co-Growth' in Purchasing Department

[Asia Economy Reporters Hwang Yoon-joo and Park So-yeon] Lee Yu-gyeong, CEO of N2B and the first female president appointed in the POSCO group, stated that she will "strengthen the supply chain through co-growth with POSCO’s partner companies."

In a phone interview with Asia Economy on the 22nd, Lee said, "I will practice 'corporate citizenship' management." N2B is one of POSCO’s group companies, responsible for business-to-business e-commerce.

Lee has played a significant role in fostering POSCO’s culture of 'co-growth' through her experience in purchasing and equipment materials. A representative example is the Benefit Sharing program initiated in 2004.

Lee explained, "Benefit Sharing is a system where cost-saving profits are shared with domestic partner companies producing high-quality products, and POSCO was the first to implement this in Korea. Through this system, the localization rate of equipment materials was raised to the 90% range." POSCO’s Benefit Sharing system is also credited with influencing the implementation of the 'Performance Sharing Confirmation System (Performance Sharing)' following the enactment of the 'Act on the Promotion of Mutual Growth between Large Enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises' in 2006. In 2018, when Chairman Choi Jeong-woo took office, the lowest-price bidding system was abolished.

She is particularly recognized for opening opportunities for more small and medium-sized enterprises to transparently transact with POSCO through the 'e-Catalog' online purchasing platform. The e-Catalog is a method where SMEs wishing to do business with POSCO register their products, and POSCO’s purchasing officers directly conclude contracts considering quality and price.

Lee’s promotion is seen as strongly reflecting Chairman Choi Jeong-woo’s commitment to appointing female talent. In the first year of Chairman Choi’s tenure, POSCO expanded the number of female executives to double digits for the first time. At that time, many from the first female university graduate recruitment class of 1990 were promoted, and Lee was also promoted to Executive Director of Equipment Materials Purchasing. Oh Ji-eun, who was promoted to executive researcher at POSCO Technical Research Institute this time, is also from the first female university graduate recruitment class.

Meanwhile, POSCO established the new lineup for 'Choi Jeong-woo Phase 2' through organizational restructuring and regular executive appointments the day before. Excellent personnel were deployed to new growth business sectors such as hydrogen and secondary battery materials, and a generational change in the top management of the steel division was achieved with Kim Hak-dong, head of the Production Technology Headquarters, promoted and appointed as president of the steel division. Additionally, POSCO newly established the Industrial Gas & Hydrogen Business Division and Logistics Business Division directly under the CEO and abolished executive ranks to promote a horizontal corporate culture.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.