Jo Joo-wan 'No Promotion to Vice Chairman'... LG Electronics, Park Hyung-se President Promotion and Establishment of Overseas Sales Headquarters

LG Electronics Personnel Changes... Park Hyung-se Promoted to President & New Overseas Sales Headquarters Under CEO
2024 Organizational Restructuring and Executive Appointments... TV Head Park Hyung-se Promoted to President
Accelerating 2030 Future Vision... Record High Promotions of Senior Research Fellows Leading R&D

LG Electronics announced on the 24th that it has carried out its organizational restructuring and executive appointments for next year. There was no news of CEO Jo Joo-wan's promotion to vice chairman. Instead, Park Hyung-se, Vice President of the HE (Home Entertainment) division leading the TV business, and Jung Dae-hwa, head of the Production Technology Institute, were promoted to president. LG Electronics explained, "In the case of executive appointments, we considered not only short-term performance but also the potential to strengthen competitiveness in mid- to long-term future businesses from a macro perspective."

As part of the organizational restructuring, a CEO-direct overseas sales headquarters was newly established. Following the establishment of the CX (Customer Experience) Center directly under the headquarters at the end of last year’s 2023 personnel reshuffle, this marks the second consecutive year of organizational restructuring. LG Electronics stated, "We focused on accelerating changes and leaps toward the '2030 Future Vision' announced last July and strengthening organizational capabilities and business competitiveness for this purpose." The Future Vision 2030 is LG Electronics' vision to transform from a home appliance-centered company into a life solution software company by 2030 and achieve the 'Triple 7' (7% annual growth rate, 7% operating profit margin, and more than 7 times corporate value). CEO Jo Joo-wan announced this in July.

Hyung-se Park, President and Head of LG Electronics HE (Home Entertainment) Division.
[Photo by LG Electronics]

Core organizations of each business division are transferred or newly established to accelerate the realization of 'Future Vision 2030'.

The H&A (Home Appliance & Air Solution) division has newly established an engineering department under the Air Solution Business Unit to strengthen the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) business. The Home Beauty Business Department under the HE (TV) division is transferred directly under the H&A division. The HE division has newly established a webOS software development group directly under the division head. webOS is the operating system for LG Electronics smart TVs. Additionally, an XR (Extended Reality) business department has been newly established.

The organizational restructuring of the HE division aims to accelerate the transition to media and entertainment businesses. This is also linked to the promotion of President Park Hyung-se.

The VS (Vehicle Component Solutions) division has newly established a global customer strategy department directly under the division. The plan is to create a 'control tower' for the vehicle component business to establish an integrated strategy for order and sales management and strengthen business marketing functions. The BS (Business Solutions) division has upgraded the B2B India Business Office, which is responsible for the rapidly growing Indian market, to the B2B India Business Department.

Jo Joo-wan Leads Overseas Sales... Division Head is Vice President Yoon Tae-bong

Jung Dae-hwa, President and Head of Production Technology at LG Electronics.
[Photo by LG Electronics]

A notable point in next year’s LG Electronics personnel appointments is the establishment of a CEO-direct overseas sales headquarters. Vice President Yoon Tae-bong, who previously served as the North America regional representative, will lead the overseas sales headquarters. Under the overseas sales headquarters are regional representatives and corporations for North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as the Global Marketing Group and the D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) Business Group.

LG Electronics said, "The overseas sales headquarters will enhance LG Electronics' global brand status and support qualitative growth of business divisions," adding, "It is an organization that strengthens execution capabilities in overseas regions and corporations with high strategic importance, including B2B (business-to-business), accelerates innovative business models such as content and service 'non-hardware' combined businesses and D2C, and develops specialized overseas sales capabilities." The D2C Business Group will strengthen online business centered on OBS (Online Brand Shop) and digital marketing capabilities based on customer data, expanding customer touchpoints.

The establishment of the CEO-direct overseas sales headquarters is significant given that CEO Jo Joo-wan previously served as head of the U.S. subsidiary. Jo has held positions as head of LG Electronics Australia, head of the U.S. subsidiary, and vice president and head of the North America region. North America is a key market where LG Electronics must succeed in exporting profitable premium products such as built-in appliances (appliances embedded into kitchen walls, etc.).

Accelerating the Realization of 'Future Vision 2030'... Division-Level Organizational Restructuring

Kim Chang-tae, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of LG Electronics. [Photo by LG Electronics]

The organizational restructuring focuses on maximizing the capabilities of each division to accelerate the realization of 'Future Vision 2030.' LG Electronics said, "While maintaining the decision-making system of the existing four business divisions, we have carried out organizational restructuring that simultaneously reorganizes each division’s core technologies and future portfolios."

The H&A (Home Appliance & Air Solution) division has newly established an engineering department under the Air Solution Business Unit. The Home Beauty Business Department under the HE (TV) division is transferred directly under the H&A division. The HE division has newly established a webOS software development group directly under the division head to accelerate the transition to media and entertainment businesses.

The VS division has newly established a global customer strategy department directly under the division. The BS division has sales and business departments for key regions such as North America, Europe, Central Asia, Asia, and Latin America to promote the expansion of B2B business. The B2B India Business Office has been upgraded to a department.

Record Number of Promotions for 'R&D Commanders'

Yoon Tae-bong, Vice President of LG Electronics Overseas Sales Division. [Photo by LG Electronics]

The executive appointments promoted a total of 49 people, including 2 presidents, 5 vice presidents, 7 senior managing directors, and 35 managing directors (including 1 from LG Magna e-Powertrain).

A notable point in the executive appointments is the promotion of Park Hyung-se, Vice President and head of the HE division, the TV business commander, to president. LG Electronics said, "President Park will lead the transformation of the TV business portfolio from product-centered to a media and entertainment platform company through content and service innovation." The promotion of Jung Dae-hwa, head of the Production Technology Institute, to president was also carried out. This is part of the plan to establish a smart factory commercialization foundation and secure future momentum (growth drivers).

Among the five promoted vice presidents, Lee Seok-woo, head of the North America Innovation (NOVA) Center, stands out. NOVA, led by Lee, has selected about 50 startups as 'partnership candidates' over two years and supported their innovation. The NOVA contest attracted about 4,000 startups, showing high responsiveness. Vice President Yoon Tae-bong, newly appointed as head of the CEO-direct overseas sales headquarters, also participated as a judge at the NOVA 'Innovation Festival 2023' held in San Francisco, USA, on the 25th of last month (local time). Attention is focused on whether synergy effects between NOVA and the overseas sales headquarters can be enhanced.

At the senior managing director level, those who have elevated LG Electronics' future business levels in webOS and vehicle components were favored. Seven people, including Lee Kang-won, head of the webOS SW development group, and Park Jun-eun, responsible for VS Asia sales and PM, were promoted to senior managing directors. At the managing director level, appointments were made to maximize research and development (R&D) capabilities. The number of promotions to senior research fellow (managing director) was six, the highest ever. Senior research fellows lead LG Electronics' R&D in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), system on chip (SoC), cloud, and smart mobility.

In finance, Kim Chang-tae, CFO of LG Innotek, was appointed as LG Electronics CFO and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) vice president.

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