GS chairman steps down after 15 years; Huh Tae-soo takes helm

By Nam Hyun-woo

Outgoing GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo

GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo has stepped down from his chairmanship at Korea's eighth-largest business group, the company said Tuesday.

Replacing the outgoing business guru will be his youngest brother, GS Home Shopping CEO Huh Tae-soo, who will be officially appointed as the CEO of the group's holding firm and board chairman at a shareholders meeting next year.

During a meeting between GS unit presidents, Huh, 71, offered to resign from his posts of GS Group chairman, GS Holdings CEO and board chairman. Following the resignation, he will keep his chairmanship at GS E&C only, and become the honorary chairman of the group.

“For the past 15 years, I fully served my duty of laying the foundation for GS to become a global company,” Huh was quoted as saying to the presidents. “Now is the time for GS to embrace a new leader who can drive the group's digitalization and expansion amid a fast-changing business environment.”

Huh is the inaugural chairman of GS Group, which was established after a split from LG Group in 2004. As well as for his role in the smooth split of the two groups, Huh is acknowledged for his leadership in growing GS Group into a giant posting 68 trillion won ($57.3 billion) in combined sales, triple the 23 trillion won in 2004.

In doing so, Huh led the group to have a holding firm structure and promoted independence between the group's three main businesses ― energy, retail and construction.

New GS Group Chairman Huh Tae-soo

The group said its new chairman will focus on the group's digitization and global expansion.

The younger Huh has been leading GS Home Shopping since 2007 and earned plaudits for the company's successful entry into overseas markets and mobile shopping. During his tenure, GS Home Shopping's sales grew to 4.25 trillion won last year from 1.9 trillion won in 2006.

Of notice is the company's transition to mobile shopping during the period, with the amount of the company handles in mobile commerce surpassing 2 trillion won last year, up from 730 billion won in 2014, the group said.

“GS has been prioritizing stable management of the group so far, but it now faces demands for various changes in its businesses,” a GS Group official said. “We believe the new chairman is the right person to lead the group to cope with such demands and drive GS faster into digitization.”