Kumho Petrochemical Appoints Vice President Park Jun-kyung as Inside Director... Start of 3rd Generation Management

Park Jun-kyung, Vice President of Kumho Petrochemical (Head of Sales Division). Photo by Kumho Petrochemical

Kumho Petrochemical is officially launching third-generation management by appointing Park Jun-kyung, the eldest son of Chairman Park Chan-gu, as an inside director.

According to Kumho Petrochemical on the 21st, at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held that morning, the proposal to newly appoint Vice President Park Jun-kyung as an inside director was passed with 12,125,890 votes (78.71%) out of 15,406,049 shares present. The proposals to appoint outside directors Kwon Tae-gyun of POSCO Holdings and Lee Ji-yoon, Vice Chairman of the Korea Chemical Management Association, were also approved with 79.12% of the votes respectively.

With this, the third-generation management system led by Park Jun-kyung, the eldest son of Chairman Park Chan-gu, is expected to be fully activated. Vice President Park is likely to take responsibility for decisions regarding future business. Last month, Kumho Petrochemical announced a 6 trillion won investment plan over the next five years, focusing on securing future growth engines such as electric vehicles, bio, and eco-friendly materials. This is a time when a faster and more decisive decision-making structure is needed.

Born in 1978, Vice President Park Jun-kyung joined the company in 2010 and has held positions such as overseas sales team leader, executive in the resin sales division, and head of the sales headquarters. He was promoted to executive director in June last year and then to vice president just 11 months later. With this new appointment as an inside director, he will take on responsibility management. On the 5th, the company stated in the "Extraordinary General Meeting Reference Materials" that "the board of directors will be composed of CEO Baek Jong-hoon, inside director Park Jun-kyung in charge of sales, and inside director Go Young-do in charge of finance and management, to swiftly carry out decision-making aimed at enhancing corporate value."

Kumho Petrochemical has been delivering sales performance exceeding market expectations since last year. Last year, Kumho Petrochemical's sales and operating profit reached 8.4618 trillion won and 2.4068 trillion won respectively, increasing by 75.9% and 224.3% compared to 2020, marking the highest performance in history. Despite increased management uncertainties such as raw material price hikes, the operating profit margin exceeded 20% in the first quarter of this year. This was attributed to the expanded proportion of high value-added products and the outstanding sales management capabilities of Vice President Park Jun-kyung, who has been head of the sales headquarters since last year. CEO Baek Jong-hoon also praised Vice President Park, saying, "He reorganized the sales environment of the synthetic resin division and flexibly responded to changes by expanding high value-added and eco-friendly products in the synthetic rubber and fine chemicals divisions, contributing to achieving last year's record-high performance."

The entry of Vice President Park Jun-kyung into the board of directors has attracted significant attention inside and outside the business community. Chairman Park Chan-gu stepped down as CEO and inside director of Kumho Petrochemical in May last year and currently only holds the title of Chairman of Kumho Petrochemical Group. Since then, the inside board has been operated by three members: CEO Baek Jong-hoon (Vice President), Go Young-hoon, head of the Central Research Institute (Vice President), and Go Young-do, head of the management headquarters (Executive Director). After one year and two months, the "ownerless board" system is coming to an end. The business community evaluates that Kumho Petrochemical now has a structure that allows faster and bolder decision-making than before amid the complex economic crisis of high inflation and high interest rates.

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