Daegu City Executive Personnel Reshuffle... Increase in Female Executive Ratio, 'First Female' Phrase Disappears

Daegu City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Daegu City conducted a personnel reshuffle of national and department head-level executives on August 17.

This executive reshuffle, including local director-level positions, was swiftly decided to reduce the work gap left by the honorable retirement of the Director of the Citizen Safety Office (local director) in July.

Kim Cheol-seop, Director of the Waterworks Business Headquarters (Local Civil Service Exam Class 1, age 56), who has experience across all areas of city administration, was promoted and appointed as the Director of the Citizen Safety Office, a grade 2 local director position.

Kim Cheol-seop, the appointed Director of the Citizen Safety Office, graduated from the Department of History Education at Kyungpook National University College of Education and entered public service in 1996 as a Local Administrative Exam Class 1 candidate.

He has served in key departments at the Daegu City Hall, including Economic Policy Division Chief, Policy Planning Officer, Spokesperson, and Deputy Mayor of Buk-gu District, and is currently serving as the Director of the Waterworks Business Headquarters.

For the grade 3 deputy director position, continuity and expertise were considered. Kim Chung-han, currently acting Director of the Future Space Development Headquarters (Public Service Exam Grade 9, age 58), was promoted.

Kim Jung-seop, Spokesperson (Public Service Exam Grade 7, age 52), was appointed as acting Director of the Waterworks Business Headquarters, based on his experience in promoting safe water supply and diversifying water sources.

The personnel transfer includes Jo Kyung-sun, appointed as the first female Spokesperson of Daegu City (Public Service Exam Grade 9, age 56), who previously served as Director of the Personnel Innovation Division.

Appointed to the spokesperson position, which had remained a "glass ceiling," Director Jo Kyung-sun has rich communication and field experience, including persuading landowners to preserve long-unexecuted urban neighborhood parks ahead of the implementation of the park sunset system.

Lee Jae-hong, Director of the Bus Operation Division (Public Service Exam Grade 7, age 51), succeeded as the new Director of the Personnel Innovation Division. He is expected to utilize his accumulated experience in personnel administration since his early career as a staff member.

Grade 4 promotion went to Kwon Young-chil, currently acting Director of the Former Site Development Division (Public Service Exam Grade 9, age 49), who was promoted to Director of the Former Site Development Division.

Lee Jae-sung, Head of the Traffic Planning Team in the Traffic Policy Division (Public Service Exam Grade 9, age 48), who has been responsible for COVID-19 transportation quarantine duties while serving as team leader of the Bus Operation and Taxi Logistics divisions, will move to acting Director of the Bus Operation Division.

This personnel reshuffle is evaluated to reflect Mayor Kwon Young-jin’s emphasis on gender equality.

The proportion of female executives at grade 4 and above has increased from 9.6% at the time of Mayor Kwon’s inauguration in 2014 to 15.8% currently.

Mayor Kwon Young-jin of Daegu City stated, “We considered organizational stability and balance, and placed executives with expertise and experience in their positions to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and advance key city administration issues. We will do our best to discover female talent so that the phrase ‘first female’ disappears.”

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