KT Final CEO Candidate Emerges... Must Overcome External Pressure and Pass Shareholders' Meeting

President Yoon Kyung-rim Selected as Final CEO Candidate
Ruling Party Criticizes "Koo Hyun-mo Avatar"... National Pension Service May Oppose

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] Yoon Kyung-rim, President of KT Group Transformation Division, has been finally selected as the next CEO candidate of KT. Given the strong opposition from the political circles, the challenge remains to smoothly pass the upcoming regular shareholders' meeting at the end of this month.

On the 7th, KT announced that the board of directors unanimously confirmed President Yoon as the next CEO candidate and resolved to recommend him at the regular shareholders' meeting to be held at the end of this month. If approved by the shareholders at the meeting, he will officially assume the CEO position.

Final candidate for KT's next CEO, Yoon Kyung-rim, Head of KT Group Transformation Division (President)
[Photo by KT]

With President Yoon emerging as the final candidate for the next CEO, the long-stalled KT CEO selection process moves to the next stage. Currently, President Yoon holds the status of the final CEO candidate. He will become CEO after the vote at the regular shareholders' meeting at the end of this month.

However, the process is not expected to be entirely smooth. Since the Presidential Office and the ruling party have repeatedly criticized the KT CEO appointment procedure, there is a high possibility that the National Pension Service will cast a dissenting vote against President Yoon. After KT released a shortlist (candidates for CEO evaluation) containing only the names of four current and former executives, a Presidential Office official said on the 2nd, "Governance must be conducted fairly and transparently. Otherwise, moral hazard will occur, and the public will inevitably bear the losses."

On the same day, members of the ruling People Power Party in the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee criticized the KT CEO candidate evaluation as having become a "closed league." They particularly harshly criticized President Yoon as being "CEO Koo Hyun-mo’s avatar," implying that Yoon was appointed as a proxy after CEO Koo became the subject of an investigation over corruption allegations.

The largest shareholder, the National Pension Service (8.53%), has not made any particular statement since the shortlist announcement. However, since it publicly opposed CEO Koo Hyun-mo’s reappointment decision last December, it is highly likely to cast a dissenting vote. If the National Pension Service strongly opposes, the second-largest shareholder Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Mobis (7.79%) and the third-largest shareholder Shinhan Bank (5.58%) will also find it difficult to vote in favor. The National Pension Service is the first and second-largest shareholder in Hyundai Motor Company and Shinhan Bank, respectively. If the vote to appoint President Yoon is rejected at the shareholders' meeting, a leadership vacuum will be inevitable. The company will have to switch to an acting CEO system and enter emergency management, which will disrupt the organizational restructuring and executive appointments delayed for three months, as well as overall business operations.

However, since foreign shareholders and minority shareholders, who constitute the absolute majority, have a positive evaluation, President Yoon’s chances of passing the shareholders' meeting are high. Even if he passes the meeting, there are concerns that the ruling party’s efforts to shake KT may intensify. Bearing this burden, President Yoon must work externally to restore relations with the government and internally to stabilize the organization by initiating the long-delayed executive appointments and new business projects.

In a statement on the day, President Yoon said, "I fully empathize with the recent concerns of the government and shareholders, and as a candidate, I will actively communicate and align with them until the shareholders' meeting."

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