KT Outside Director Yoon Jongsoo Declines Reappointment, Stirring Uncertainty Ahead of Shareholders' Meeting

Position May Remain Vacant If Successor Is Not Confirmed

Yoon Jongsoo, Chair of the KT Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Committee, has decided not to seek reappointment as an outside director less than two weeks before the KT annual general shareholders' meeting.

KT Gwanghwamun Building in Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

According to industry sources on the 16th, Director Yoon informed the KT board of directors on this day that he would decline reappointment.

Yoon was scheduled to be nominated as a candidate for outside director at the general shareholders' meeting on March 31, alongside Kim Younghan, Professor at Soongsil University School of Electronic and Information Engineering; Kwon Youngsook, CEO of Intel Korea; and Seo Jinseok, former CEO of EY Han Young. Among the four candidates to replace the outside directors whose terms are expiring, Yoon was the only one set for reappointment. A former Vice Minister of Environment, Yoon was appointed in June 2023 and is credited with helping KT achieve the highest rating in ESG evaluations.

The industry views Yoon's resignation as a voluntary decision amid the formation of a new management team and board of directors. The previous board had been embroiled in governance controversies, including issues of 'self-reappointment' and infringement on the CEO's appointment authority.

With Yoon stepping down, KT now needs to search for a new outside director to oversee the ESG sector. Previously, the KT Director Candidate Recommendation Committee announced a plan to change the outside director appointment process from a centralized to a distributed replacement system. If a successor is not confirmed before the annual shareholders' meeting, the position may remain vacant for some time.

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