Keyword 'Young Leadership'... Lotte Conducts Regular Executive Personnel Changes

Young Leadership and External Experts... Realizing Change and Innovation in the 'New Lotte'
Chairman Shin Dong-bin Emphasizes Continuous Change, Innovation, and Future Competitiveness in the 'New Lotte'
Full-Scale Young Leadership, Strategic Reallocation of Internal Experts
Injection of External Talent for Confectionery Division, First External Female CEO Appointed in Members Group

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] On the 15th, Lotte held board meetings for 35 affiliates including Lotte Holdings and announced the 2023 regular executive appointments. Given the increasing uncertainty in the internal and external business environment and the anticipation of an era of 'permacrisis' next year, the company explained that a more precise verification and review process was undertaken to secure future competitiveness and realize transformation and renewal of existing businesses.

Lotte stated, "Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte, emphasized a 'New Lotte' during the VCM (Value Creation Meeting) and internal meetings, checking the preparation status of new group businesses and ordering solutions to lead the turnaround of existing businesses." In connection with this, the 2023 executive appointments focused on 'continuous change and innovation' and 'creating future competitiveness.'

The keywords of this personnel reshuffle are the full-scale introduction of young leadership to accelerate innovation, strategic reallocation of core competencies based on responsible management, and continuous recruitment of external experts.

The overall age of Lotte CEOs has become younger. In June, Lotte Biologics appointed Lee Won-jik, Executive Director of Lotte Holdings' New Growth Team 2, as its first CEO, marking the beginning of the 40s CEO era at Lotte. In this reshuffle, Lee Hoon-ki, Vice President of Lotte Holdings' ESG Management Innovation Office, was promoted to President, entering the ranks of presidents in their 50s. Lee Hoon-ki joined Honam Petrochemical in 1990, served as CEO of Lotte Chemical Titan and Lotte Rental, and currently leads Lotte Holdings' ESG Management Innovation Office and Lotte Healthcare. Lotte Healthcare and Lotte Biologics, which will form an important portfolio for Lotte Group's future growth, were launched consecutively this year, and successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were carried out to discover various future growth engines.

Through this executive appointment, the average age of all Lotte CEOs is 57, about one year younger than last year's average of 58. The president level is about three years younger. Among the new executives, 46% are in their 40s, and four newly promoted executives in their early 40s (45 or younger) born after 1978 are Chae Hye-young, Assistant Manager of Lotte Chilsung; Lee Yong-woo, Assistant Manager of Lotte Hi-Mart; Hwang Ho-jin, Assistant Manager of Lotte Global Logistics; and Park Kang-min, Assistant Manager of Lotte Trading.

Meanwhile, three senior executives who led Lotte will retire from the front lines for the group's new leap and change. Song Yong-duk, CEO (Vice Chairman) of Lotte Holdings; Kim Hyun-soo, CEO (President) of Lotte Rental; and Ha Seok-ju, CEO (President) of Lotte Construction, will leave Lotte after more than 35 years of service.

Song Yong-duk, CEO of Lotte Holdings, played the role of a control tower for innovation such as talent development and management improvement across the entire Lotte Group. However, it is known that he recently expressed his intention to step down, stating that to respond quickly to the rapidly changing business environment, the group's capabilities must be concentrated around young and new leaders. Kim Hyun-soo, CEO of Lotte Rental, successfully listed Lotte Rental on the stock market in August last year and made various investments to leap forward as a future mobility platform company. Ha Seok-ju, CEO of Lotte Construction, worked on various large-scale domestic and overseas projects and launched the high-end residential brand LE-EL, striving to strengthen order-winning competitiveness and elevate brand status.

Lotte focused on recruiting external talents with global competitiveness and expertise. Lee Chang-yeop, former head of LG Household & Health Care's business division, and Kim Hye-joo, Executive Director of Shinhan Bank, were appointed as CEOs of Lotte Confectionery and Lotte Members, respectively. This reflects a strong will for innovation by appointing an external person as CEO of Lotte Confectionery, the parent company of Lotte Group, for the first time.

Lee Chang-yeop, appointed as the new CEO of Lotte Confectionery, is a global marketing expert with over 30 years of experience in global consumer goods companies in Korea and North America. Starting with Korea P&G in 1993, he served as head of Hershey Korea, CEO of Coca-Cola Korea, and led North American business as CEO of The Avon Company, a U.S. subsidiary of LG Household & Health Care. Lotte expects that Lee Chang-yeop will bring overseas business expansion, branding enhancement, and organizational innovation necessary for Lotte Confectionery to leap into a global comprehensive food company based on his excellent global mindset, marketing, and strategic capabilities.

Kim Hye-joo, appointed as the first external female CEO of Lotte Members, is a big data expert with rich data analysis experience across various industries including finance, manufacturing, and telecommunications. She has worked at Samsung Electronics and KT and currently serves as Executive Director and Head of MyData Unit at Shinhan Financial Group's Big Data Division. Based on her top-level domestic data expertise, Kim Hye-joo is expected to discover new business perspectives using data from 40 million customers owned by Lotte and lead digital innovation, strengthening the capabilities of Lotte Members, a core future competitiveness of Lotte Group's distribution sector.

Lotte Rental is also in the process of appointing an external strategy expert as CEO. Lotte plans to actively recruit external experts again next year.

In this personnel reshuffle, Lotte strategically reallocates long-verified internal experts in each field to new roles. Internally nurtured talents are actively discovered and appointed as CEOs. Kim Joo-nam, former Executive Director and head of Lotte Duty Free Korea Business Division, and Kim Jae-gyeom, former Executive Director and head of Lotte Home Shopping TV Business Division, were appointed as CEOs of Lotte Duty Free and Lotte Home Shopping, respectively. Kim Joo-nam, with extensive experience in product strategy, managing the Sogong branch, and management support at Lotte Duty Free, has a high understanding of the industry and will lead the turnaround in response to changes and crises in the business environment. Kim Jae-gyeom of Lotte Home Shopping plans to initiate full-scale innovation as a media commerce leading company beyond the existing home shopping domain.

Existing CEOs with long-verified management capabilities and expertise will also be reassigned as affiliate CEOs. Park Hyun-chul, appointed last month as CEO of Lotte Construction, will be promoted from President to Vice Chairman due to the significant role assigned. Based on excellent risk management and business structure reorganization capabilities, he will focus all efforts on resolving market instability and addressing current issues at Lotte Construction.

Lee Wan-shin, CEO of Lotte Home Shopping, was appointed as the overall CEO of Lotte Group's hotel division and CEO of Lotte Hotel. With outstanding marketing capabilities and a customer-centric perspective, he is expected to provide business transformation and innovation momentum toward becoming a global hotel chain. An Se-jin, the existing overall CEO of Lotte Group's hotel division, will move to become head of Lotte Future Strategy Institute, the group's think tank, focusing on establishing new strategic directions to create future growth engines for the entire group.

Nam Chang-hee, CEO of Lotte Super, was appointed as CEO of Lotte Hi-Mart. Based on over 30 years of direct purchase distribution experience, he is expected to improve profitability and solidify the status of the number one specialized electronics company.

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