Yoo Young-sang's SK Telecom 2.0 Era... What the Organizational Restructuring Signifies

SK Telecom Expands Executive Appointments Compared to Previous Year
Kang Jong-ryeol Promoted to President in Charge of ICT Infrastructure
‘One Team’ Synergy with SK Broadband
SK Square Also Appoints Dedicated Investment Executive

Yoo Young-sang, President and CEO of SK Telecom

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] With SK Telecom splitting into a telecommunications company and an investment company for the first time in its 37-year history, the 'SKT 2.0 era' led by SK Telecom CEO Yoo Young-sang has begun. Compared to last year, there was a significant increase in executive promotions, reflecting the intention to strengthen both wired and wireless communications.

According to industry sources on the 2nd, SK Telecom appointed Yoo Young-sang, head of the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) business, as the new CEO and made a total of 18 internal personnel changes. Among the new executives at SK Telecom alone, 14 were appointed, a much larger change compared to the 10 executive appointments last year.

Born in 1970, CEO Yoo Young-sang graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Industrial Engineering and earned a master's degree from the same university's graduate school. He completed an MBA at the University of Washington in the United States and joined SK Telecom in 2000, where he was responsible for discovering new businesses at SK Telecom and SK C&C. Notably, he led the acquisition of SK Hynix in 2012, establishing himself as an expert in new business development and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) within the SK Group. Since 2019, he has served as the head of SK Telecom's MNO business.

Jongryeol Kang, President in charge of ICT Infrastructure at SK Telecom

SK Telecom also appointed Kang Jong-ryeol, Vice President in charge of ICT Infrastructure, as president. President Kang was born in 1964 and graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Electronic Engineering. He is a seasoned SK employee who joined SK Telecom in 1994. Until 2013, he served as the head of network technology and head of the network strategy division at SK Telecom, then moved to SK Broadband in 2014 to lead the network division. Since 2017, he has been the head of the ICT Infrastructure Center at SK Broadband.

The promotion of Vice President Kang to president is interpreted as the company's intention to strengthen the wired and wireless communication sectors. This comes amid growing dissatisfaction with the quality of 5G services, which come at a high cost, and the increased importance of the backbone communication network following recent nationwide wired and wireless internet outages at KT.

SK Telecom CEO Yoo Young-sang also emphasized at a town hall meeting the day before that building a stable communication infrastructure is a 'prerequisite' for other technologies and services. He stated, "In the wired and wireless communication business, along with 5G-based competitiveness, we will build a stable communication infrastructure as the number one backbone communication operator."

At SK Square, newly established after the split from SK Telecom, three executives including subsidiaries were newly appointed. Lee Heon, CIO1 Managing Director (MD), was appointed as a new executive at SK Square. The Managing Director is an executive in the investment strategy organization led by Yoon Poong-young, former SK Telecom Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and now SK Square Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Jo Hyung-joon, head of SK Shielders TP Division, and Kim Tae-yang, head of SK Planet Platform Center, were also newly appointed as executives.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom plans to transition its organizational structure, which had been operated separately as wireless (SK Telecom) and wired (SK Broadband), into a common B2C and B2B CIC (Company in Company) system for both companies. This aims to maximize synergy as a practical 'one team.' For example, Bae Jae-jun, who is in charge of management planning at SK Broadband and subject to executive personnel changes, will concurrently serve as the Enterprise Planning head at SK Telecom.

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