KT appoints new CEO, eyes AI-driven reshuffle

Newly appointed KT CEO Park Yoon-young / Courtesy of KT

KT appointed Park Yoon-young as its new CEO at a shareholders meeting Tuesday and announced a sweeping organizational restructuring and executive reshuffle aimed at strengthening its core telecom business and accelerating growth in artificial intelligence (AI) transformation (AX).

The overhaul includes a 30 percent cut in executive-level officials and a full replacement of key department heads, as the company seeks to rebuild trust, streamline management and boost operational agility.

Particularly in business-to-business, AX and AI divisions, it said it appointed younger, performance-driven leaders, naming two new vice presidents: former KT Engineering chief Kim Bong-gyun to oversee the enterprise division and former IT Platform Senior Director Ok Kyung-hwa to lead the overall IT division.

The company also reorganized its research and development division into the AX-dedicated institution to focus on AI development, while a newly created IT division will oversee platform operations and infrastructure modernization.

The newly launched AX business division that focuses on its business-to-business and AX segments will centralize functions that were previously spread across the divisions, ranging from strategy and technology development, partnerships and service expansion, under a unified leadership structure.

To enhance service quality and decision-making in the field, the company reorganized its seven regional business units into four broader regional headquarters directly aligned with business-to-consumers, B2B and network divisions.

Park, who joined KT’s predecessor Korea Telecom in 1992, has spent more than three decades at the company, gaining broad experience across its business and technology sectors through key positions including head of the future business division and head of the Convergence Research Division.

KT's shareholders attend a general meeting at the KT R&D Center in Seocho District, Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of KT

“CEO Park’s expertise in (AX), his growth strategy and his commitment to enhancing corporate value are expected to drive KT’s future growth,” the company said.

After his appointment was approved at the shareholders’ meeting, held in Seocho District, Seoul, Park sent a message to employees pledging to move quickly to reposition KT for the AI era.

“I want to show you through speed and execution rather than words and formality,” he said.

“The environment surrounding our core telecommunications business is becoming increasingly difficult, and our responsibility for security, networks, and quality has never been heavier.”

The new CEO emphasized AI as the core driver of KT’s next phase, noting that this year will mark the starting point of that transition.

“AI transformation is rapidly changing the order of industries and the very way companies exist,” he said. “We will develop KT into a national key telecommunications operator responsible for the present and future of Korea’s network, and into an AI platform company leading the AI era.”

To drive the transformation into an AX platform company, Park presented solid fundamentals and clear growth as the two pillars of the strategy, stressing that the company will not compromise on investments in network infrastructure, service quality and cybersecurity.

He also addressed future technologies, saying, “We will proactively prepare for and lead future technologies such as 6G, satellites, AI-radio access network and quantum security.”

During the meeting, the company also appointed KT Millie Seojae CEO Park Hyun-jin as an inside director, as well as three new outside directors.