Korea & Company Appoints Chairman Cho Hyun-beom... Steps Toward Ending Management Dispute (Comprehensive)

Cho Hyun-beom, Chairman of Korea & Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Cho Hyun-beom, CEO of Hankook & Company, has been appointed chairman of the Hankook & Company Group. His father, Chairman Cho Yang-rae, was named honorary chairman, and his older brother Cho Hyun-sik, who had been in a management dispute with Chairman Cho Hyun-beom, stepped down as an advisor, marking the de facto conclusion of the management dispute.

Hankook & Company Group announced on the 22nd through a regular personnel appointment that CEO Cho was appointed chairman of the holding company Hankook & Company.

Chairman Cho joined Hankook Tire in 1998 and has served as head of marketing, head of corporate planning, and CEO of Hankook Tire, earning recognition for driving Hankook Tire's global growth and enhancing its premium brand image.

In 2004, he led a major corporate image (CI) renewal for Hankook Tire and launched a global campaign utilizing it, laying the foundation for the brand's leap to premium status.

He is also credited with growing the Hankook Tire brand into a genuine global premium brand by securing original equipment (OE) tire supply contracts with global premium automakers such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, and Tesla. He led large-scale investments in overseas factories in China, Hungary, and the United States, completing a global production base portfolio.

Despite uncertain business environments such as the COVID-19 pandemic, last year the company achieved sales of 6.454 trillion won, rising from 7th to 6th place among global tire companies, demonstrating outstanding management performance.

A representative of Hankook & Company Group emphasized, "With Chairman Cho's inauguration, Hankook & Company Group plans to actively lead investments to strengthen core business competitiveness and discover new businesses, centered on a newly established future innovation direction."

Alongside this, Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire) announced promotions of three vice presidents, three executive directors, four managing directors, and ten deputy managing directors on the same day.

This personnel move reflects the company's situation of generating better profitability compared to the previous year by concentrating company-wide capabilities despite the global COVID-19 impact on the automotive industry in 2021.

Meanwhile, Chairman Cho Yang-rae was named honorary chairman of the group, and Cho Hyun-sik will serve as an advisor to Hankook & Company Co., Ltd. With Cho stepping down as an advisor, the management dispute between the brothers, which lasted over a year, is considered to be in its final stages.

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