[KT Presidential Candidate] 'Strategist' Yoon Kyung-rim, Head of KT Group Transformation (Innovation) Division

Yoon Kyung-rim, Vice President of KT

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Yoon Kyung-rim, President of KT Group Transformation (Innovation) Division, is known as the ‘right hand’ of CEO Koo Hyun-mo and is currently the most frequently mentioned figure in political circles among the candidates.

Born in 1963, he graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Business Administration and earned a master's degree in Management Science and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He began his career at LG Dacom, the predecessor of LG Uplus, and was in charge of sales and marketing from the early days of Hanaro Telecom before joining KT in 2006.

He served as Head of KT’s New Business Promotion Headquarters (Senior Executive Director), Head of Media Headquarters in 2008 (Senior Executive Director), and Head of Service Development Office in 2009 (Senior Executive Director), overseeing new business discovery and convergence businesses such as media.

He later moved to CJ, where he managed strategic planning and business management for CJ Group as well as key platform affiliates. At CJ, he held the position of Vice President and served as head of the planning and business teams.

President Yoon returned to KT in 2014 shortly after Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu took office as KT’s head. At that time, Chairman Hwang appointed Yoon as Executive Director of the Future Convergence Strategy Office, responsible for establishing KT Group’s future strategy, just over a month after being officially appointed chairman at an extraordinary general meeting.

At the end of 2018, through personnel and organizational restructuring, he was promoted to Head of the Global Business Division from the Global Business Promotion Office, but unexpectedly resigned two months after his promotion in 2019. In March of the same year, he took the position of Vice President at Hyundai Motor Company.

In 2021, he returned to KT again through CEO Koo Hyun-mo’s recruitment and currently serves as President of the Group Transformation (Innovation) Division. Having worked at several places, he has the unique record of joining KT three times.

Inside the company, he is regarded as a representative ‘strategist.’ It is reported that he played a decisive role in Hyundai Motor and CJ making large-scale investments in KT. Hyundai Motor formed a blood alliance with KT by exchanging shares to cooperate on future mobility technologies. Shinhan Bank also formed a strategic alliance by exchanging shares with KT. It is evaluated that this was possible thanks to the know-how and experience Yoon accumulated through his career at various companies.

The strong connection with former CEO Koo, who is being rejected by the ruling party, is considered Yoon’s biggest weakness in advancing to CEO. Lawmakers from the ruling party on the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee raised suspicions, saying, "There are rampant rumors that when CEO Koo Hyun-mo became the subject of an investigation and suddenly resigned, he instructed to appoint his avatar Yoon Kyung-rim and put Shin Su-jeong as the second candidate."

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