8 candidates for KT CEO… Inside vs. Bureaucrats/Academic Clash

The clock for the appointment of KT’s next CEO is running urgently. This is because KT’s board of directors has set a deadline for confirming the next head for the middle of this month and has begun to “discover the jade stone” in earnest. In order not to repeat the unprecedented management vacuum last year, the will to establish leadership in a speedy manner is read.

According to the telecommunications industry on the 2nd, KT’s board of directors’ recommendation committee held a meeting and interview on the same day, and narrowed down the number of 16 people subject to the CEO’s document review to eight.

The detailed list and the size of the in-house candidates were not disclosed. The committee is expected to select four final candidates among the eight people who were compressed through additional interviews on the 9th. Then, on the 16th of this month, an interview will be held again to determine the final candidate on the day.

Currently, Hamapyeong is largely divided into an “internal/OB (Old Boy) group with organizational stability” and an “external/bureaucratic/academic group with policy coordination capabilities.”

First of all, people familiar with internal affairs are expected to make strides.

Park Yoon-young, the former head of the corporate division, was a person who competed with former CEO Koo Hyun-mo until the last minute during the CEO race in 2019, and is considered to have a high understanding of KT’s business-to-business (B2B) business. Lee Hyun-seok, the current head of the customer division (vice president), is classified as a candidate group with an incumbent premium.

“Hybrid type” figures, who are from KT and have external experience, are also considered strong figures. Hong Won-pyo, former CEO of Samsung SDS, has a history of leading next-generation communication technology and new businesses while serving as KT’s executive director, so his strength is that he has experienced both KT’s DNA and Samsung’s innovation system.

Kim Tae-ho, former president of Seoul Transportation Corporation, is also a former KT and has led innovation in public enterprises, which is said to be the right person for the task of improving the constitution and stabilizing the organization that KT is currently facing.

Outside figures include Joo Hyung-chul, former presidential economic adviser, and Kim Jae-hong, former vice chairman of the Korea Communications Commission. The attraction is that they can serve as a bridge to the government and policy authorities, but the “falling controversy” that can be raised around KT unions and civil society is a mountain to be overcome. People from academia, including Hong Seong-tae, former president of Sangmyung University, also challenged.

[Reporter Kim Daegi]

This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.