KT CEO Candidates Narrowed Down to Three: Kim Young-seop, Park Yoon-young, and Cha Sang-gyun (Comprehensive)

Final 3 Candidates to Undergo In-Depth Interviews Early Next Month
Hold Shareholders' Meeting and Officially Appoint

KT has revealed the three final candidates for its next CEO.

The KT Board Candidate Recommendation Committee announced on the 27th that the candidates for the KT CEO in-depth interview include Kim Young-seop, former CEO of LG CNS; Park Yoon-young, former head of KT's Enterprise Division (President); and Cha Sang-gyun, Dean of Seoul National University Graduate School of Data Science.

Kim Young-seop, former CEO of LG CNS. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

Former CEO Kim was born in 1959 in Mungyeong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and graduated from Gyeongbuk Provincial Daegu High School and Korea University with a degree in Business Administration. He joined LG Sangsa (then Lucky-Goldstar Sangsa) in 1984 and held positions such as Head of Management at LG Sangsa's U.S. branch and Executive Director of the Financial Improvement Team at LG Restructuring Headquarters.

In 2013, he moved to LG CNS, where he served as head of major business divisions including the High-Tech Business Division and Solution Business Division, gaining recognition for his expertise in both finance and IT business. After becoming CEO of LG CNS in 2015, he achieved results in new business areas beyond the existing IT consulting and system integration (SI) sectors.

Former President Park was born in 1962 and graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He earned both his master's and doctoral degrees in Civil Engineering from Seoul National University Graduate School. At KT, he oversaw the B2B (business-to-business) operations related to 5G mobile communications, discovering new business models and enhancing the profitability of the 5G communication business.

He received high evaluations both inside and outside the company for his challenging business initiatives, playing a key role in KT's remarkable achievements in the enterprise business sector.

Sangkyun Cha, Dean of the Graduate School of Data Science, Seoul National University / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

Dean Cha, born in 1958, was born in Busan. He graduated from Gyeongbuk Provincial Daegu High School and Seoul National University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He earned a master's degree in Control and Instrumentation Engineering from the same university and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in the United States.

Dean Cha is recognized as a global expert who pioneered the era of large-capacity memory-based server systems by developing HANA, the world's first in-memory database platform. This achievement was made during his time at the company he founded, 'TIM.' HANA is currently used by global companies such as Google, Amazon, Meta, and Intel. He is also highly regarded for his significant contributions to nurturing software talent with innovative ideas and a spirit of challenge.

Earlier that day, the KT Board Candidate Recommendation Committee conducted online interviews with applicants who passed the document screening and selected a shortlist of three final candidates. The shortlisted candidates are expected to undergo in-depth interviews all on the same day early next month.

Once the final candidate is decided, they will be formally appointed as the next CEO through a vote at the shareholders' meeting at the end of next month. The appointment requirements at the shareholders' meeting are 'more than 60% of shares present + approval rate of more than 25% of total shares.'

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