Hyundai Motor Appoints Lee Ji-yoon, KAIST Associate Professor, as First Female Outside Director Candidate

Lee Ji-yoon, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] As major affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group continue to recruit female outside directors one after another, Hyundai Motor, the eldest sibling, has also nominated its first-ever female outside director candidate.

Hyundai Motor announced on the 23rd that it has decided on an agenda to appoint Ji-yoon Lee, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST, and Dal-hoon Shim, CEO of Woorin Tax Partners, as new outside directors at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 24th of next month.

Among them, Professor Lee is an expert in the domestic aerospace engineering field and was the first female director of the Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences. In 2019, she was the first Korean professor to be elected as a director of the American Institute of Navigation.

Hyundai Motor, which has identified Urban Air Mobility (UAM) as a future growth engine, expects Professor Lee to provide advice and opinions related to the direction and technological trends of the related business. Hyundai Motor plans to launch a cargo unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with a hybrid powertrain in 2026, followed by a fully electrified manned UAM model in 2028.

Hyundai Motor Group is actively recruiting female outside director candidates not only at Hyundai Motor but also at major affiliates such as Hyundai Mobis, Kia, and Hyundai Glovis this year.

The first affiliate to open the door to appointing female outside directors was Hyundai Mobis. Professor Jin-ah Kang of Seoul National University's Graduate School of Technology Management and Economics was nominated as a candidate for outside director at Hyundai Mobis, followed by Professor Hwa-soon Cho of Yonsei University's Department of Political Science and International Relations at Kia, Professor Yoon Yoon-jin of KAIST's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hyundai Glovis, and Professor Geum-ju Jang of the University of Seoul's Business Administration Department as the first female outside director candidates at Hyundai Steel.

Professor Kang is an expert with over 30 years of experience in technology management and business innovation, expected to play a role in establishing R&D innovation strategies tailored to the industrial landscape. Professor Cho is the first domestic political scientist to be a full member of the National Academy of Science and Technology and is regarded as a well-balanced expert spanning political science and science and technology fields.

Professor Yoon worked as a researcher at the U.S. National Center for Air Traffic Operations Research and is an expert in industrial systems fields such as mobility big data, mathematical transportation science, and transportation resource optimization. Professor Jang has been active in accounting and taxation fields, authoring numerous papers related to taxation.

A Hyundai Motor Group official said, "We have continuously strived to enhance the diversity, expertise, and transparency of the board by appointing individuals with outstanding capabilities in each field as outside directors," adding, "The fact that major affiliates have selected female experts as outside director candidates is also part of this intention."

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor also finalized an agenda to newly appoint President Jae-hoon Jang and Vice President Kang-hyun Seo as inside directors and to reappoint President Ha Eon-tae on the same day. Additionally, it proposed a revision to the articles of incorporation to expand and reorganize the Transparency Management Committee, composed solely of outside directors, into the Sustainable Management Committee, adding roles such as deliberation and resolution on ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) matters.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, Hyundai Motor plans to broadcast the shareholders' meeting live online and via mobile in real-time for shareholders who applied in advance for the first time this year. It will also utilize the electronic voting system.

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