Daewoo E&C, 33.3% Female Outside Directors... Leading ESG Efforts

Daewoo E&C is making changes to lead environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management by increasing the proportion of women in its outside board of directors and establishing a compensation committee.

On the 28th, at the regular shareholders' meeting, Daewoo E&C decided to appoint An Seong-hee, an associate professor in the Department of Accounting at Catholic University and an accounting and finance expert, as an additional female outside director. It also resolved to amend part of the articles of incorporation, including improving the board convening procedures and establishing a compensation committee.

As a result, the number of female outside directors at Daewoo E&C increased from one to two out of six, raising the proportion of women among outside directors to 33.3%. According to the amended Capital Market Act, which has been in effect since August last year, listed companies with total assets exceeding 2 trillion won must appoint at least one female executive on their board to secure gender diversity and strengthen ESG management. Daewoo E&C already meets the legal standard with Lee Young-hee, a legal expert and representative attorney at Barun Law LLC, serving as a female outside director, but it is notable that the company has appointed an additional female outside director this time. Among the top 10 construction companies in Korea, Daewoo E&C is the only one to have appointed two or more female directors.

A Daewoo E&C official said, "Especially, the newly appointed director An Seong-hee is an accounting and finance expert who is actively engaged not only in academia but also in practice, and is expected to serve concurrently as an audit committee member, playing an important role in enhancing the expertise and functions of the audit committee."

CEO Baek Jeong-wan attending Daewoo E&C shareholders' meeting
[Image source=Daewoo E&C]

A compensation committee is also expected to be established within the board. Once established, the compensation committee will design and review performance-based salaries and incentives, which is expected to have positive effects on governance, such as enhancing motivation for executive directors and ensuring transparent and fair compensation execution.

The notice period for convening board meetings will also be advanced. The notification of board meeting agendas, which was previously given three days before the meeting, will be changed to seven days in advance to allow directors sufficient time to review the agenda. This is expected to strengthen the thoroughness and efficiency of board deliberations.

Furthermore, starting with this shareholders' meeting, Daewoo E&C is known to have various plans to further strengthen board-centered management, including the introduction of a board evaluation system and improvements in managing outside director and CEO candidate pools.

A Daewoo E&C official stated, "Through these amendments to the articles of incorporation and board regulations, we have especially focused on strengthening the governance aspect of ESG management. We will do our best to lead proper ESG management by enhancing trust in governance through fair and transparent board operations, as well as continuously strengthening safety and environmental sectors."

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