KT appoints Koo as CEO

KT CEO Koo Hyun-mo speaks at the podium during the 38th shareholders meeting at the KT Research and Development Center in Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of KT

By Kim Hyun-bin

Shareholders of KT, the country's leading telecom firm, appointed long-time employee Koo Hyun-mo as its chief executive.

"KT has long been a leader in the country's ICT industry and we have fantastic employees dedicated to developing distinguishable telecom services for all citizens in need of our products," Koo told employees and share owners at the firm's shareholders meeting, Monday.

Koo is a long-time KT employee, having worked at the company for more than three decades. Speaking to employees and shareholders in attendance, the senior executive vowed to further promote corporate value, and increase sales and strengthen profitability.

The CEO stressed he would prioritize making KT a "game changer" in the already saturated and highly-competitive local telecom market by "consistently pursuing" digital innovation focused on artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing and fifth-generation (5G) networks.

Koo also showed his commitment to help KT release "customer centric telecom products," being able to swiftly and flexibly provide what customers want, and expand KT's businesses while maintaining quality.

Along with Koo, all in-house and four out of eight outside directors were voted into office by shareholders.

As the government provided guidelines for companies on appropriate measures to take during their shareholders meeting to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distancing requirements, KT opted to use an electronic voting system this year rather than paper ballots.

Koo has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Seoul National University and joined KT in 1987, upon graduation.

Shareholders pushed ahead with Koo's appointment for a three-year term despite strong opposition from the company's ex-union members.

The members have called the move a major "CEO risk" as Koo is under investigations for alleged violation of the Political Fund Law. KT's incumbent top executives, including Koo, created a 1.1 billion-won ($970,000) slush fund between May 2014 and October 2017, and spent about 438 million won of the money to allegedly bribe 99 lawmakers.

"Koo has been nominated but depending on the prosecution's investigation results his status could become untenable becoming a severe CEO risk to the company," one member said.

"Earlier this month, KT refused to reveal the minutes from a board of directors meeting regarding the appointment of Koo, which the shareholders have a right to see," the official said. "If Koo is found guilty, how is the board of directors going to take responsibility for damaging the company's image and the loss in share value?"

Ex-union members have been calling on the National Pension Service (NPS), KT's largest shareholder with 13.5 percent of the company's stock, to conduct an investigation into allegations against Koo and urged it to vote against his appointment. Despite their efforts, the NPS voted in favor of him.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn