KT Confirms 7 Outside Director Candidates... 'ICT Expertise' Removed from CEO Requirements

KT has finalized seven external director candidates. Additionally, to broaden the pool of CEO candidates, it has decided to amend its articles of incorporation to exclude the requirement for 'professional knowledge and experience in the information and communication technology (ICT) field.'

On the 9th, KT announced that its Outside Director Candidate Recommendation Committee proceeded with the appointment process according to the improvement plan prepared by the 'New Governance Establishment TF' and recommended seven final external director candidates.

The seven newly recommended external director candidates are ▲ Kwak Woo-young, former Head of Hyundai Motor Vehicle IT Development Center ▲ Kim Sung-chul, Professor at Korea University Media Department ▲ Ahn Young-kyun, Director of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) ▲ Yoon Jong-soo, former Vice Minister of Environment ▲ Lee Seung-hoon, Representative Partner of KCGI Global Division ▲ Cho Seung-ah, Professor at Seoul National University Business School ▲ Choi Yang-hee, President of Hallym University. Among them, three candidates?former Center Head Kwak, Representative Partner Lee, and Professor Cho?were nominated by shareholders.

The seven newly appointed external directors will form the board along with Chairman Kim Yong-hyun (former Chief Judge of Gwangju High Court), whose term has two years remaining. Going forward, the board will operate with a total of 10 members, including these eight and two internal directors.

Alongside this, KT has prepared an improvement plan for the CEO appointment process and plans to amend the related articles of incorporation at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting. A notable point in this amendment is the CEO qualification requirements. Instead of ICT expertise, the criteria have been reorganized into four categories: ▲ corporate management expertise ▲ leadership ▲ communication skills ▲ industry expertise.

For this appointment process only, KT will form the pool of external CEO candidates not only through recommendations from external professional organizations and open recruitment but also through shareholder nominations. Shareholder nominations are limited to those holding at least 0.5% of KT shares for more than six months.

When forming the CEO candidate pool, KT plans to consider the existing requirements (at least two years of service and a group rank of vice president or higher) along with management expertise and understanding of KT’s business. An appointment advisory panel will be utilized for the evaluation and formation of both internal and external CEO candidate pools.

Furthermore, the voting threshold for CEO candidates at the shareholders' meeting will be raised from a simple majority (over 50% approval of shares participating in the vote) to over 60% approval, strengthening the legitimacy of CEO appointments while preventing internal factionalism and external parachute appointments.

In future CEO appointments, new candidates will require over 60% approval of shares participating in the vote, as in this shareholders' meeting, while reappointment candidates can only be appointed through a special resolution (approval by two-thirds or more of shares participating in the vote).

A KT official stated, "We plan to complete the appointment of new external directors and the amendment of the articles of incorporation through the extraordinary general meeting on the 30th," adding, "The board, composed of the newly appointed external directors, will take the lead in promptly advancing the new CEO appointment process."

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