KT Chairman Hwang secures second term

By Yoon Ja-young

KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu will serve a second term at the telecommunications company following his nomination as the sole candidate to become the next chairman.

The company’s CEO recommendation committee held a meeting at its headquarters in downtown Seoul, Thursday, where they interviewed Hwang. The chairman presented his management plan and vision, based on the accomplishments he has made at the company so far.

After the interview, the committee members agreed to recommend Hwang to the board of directors as the sole candidate. KT’s board of directors is scheduled to hold a meeting next Tuesday, where they will officially recommend Hwang as the next chairman. He will be officially sworn in if he gets approval at the general shareholders’ meeting scheduled for March. He will then continue to lead KT until 2020.

According to the committee members, they highly evaluated the accomplishments Hwang has made during this three-year term.

KT sustained around a 400 billion won deficit in 2014, the year when Hwang inaugurated as chairman, but succeeded in marking a 1.3 trillion won operating profit the very next year. Last year, it reaped over 400 billion won in operating profit for two consecutive quarters. Market analysts expect its operating profit for 2016 to surpass 1.4 trillion won.

Its debt ratio, which once soared to 186 percent, also fell to below 140 percent as of the third quarter last year.

Hwang, however, once faced hurdles due to the political corruption scandal involving President Park Gen-hye and her long-time friend Choi Soon-sil. There were allegations that KT hired an acquaintance of Cha Eun-taek, a commercial and music video director who has ties with Choi Soon-sil, as an executive under pressure from Cheong Wa Dae. An advertising company affiliated with Choi and Cha also won ad contracts for KT, adding to the suspicions.

However, KT was not included in the main investigation target by an independent counsel team, which helped the recommendation committee pay more attention to Hwang’s achievements rather than the allegations.

Since Hwang’s inauguration, KT has been seeking future growth engines in convergence technology such as smart energy, integrated security, next-generation media, healthcare and intelligent traffic control. KT aims to attain 5 trillion won in sales by 2020 through convergence technology.

He is also scheduled to give a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona, Spain, next month.