Park Yoon-young, former KT president, has been chosen as KT’s new CEO candidate. As a “true KT man” who has been with the corporate for over 30 years, Park will tackle the vital duty of managing the hacking incident aftermath and re-launching synthetic intelligence (AI) new companies primarily based on his inner understanding of the corporate.
KT introduced on Dec. 16 that the Director Candidate Advice Committee performed interviews with three candidates — Park, Joo Hyung-cheol, former member of the Nationwide Coverage Planning Committee, and Hong Received-pyo, former CEO of Samsung SDS — and chosen Park as the ultimate CEO candidate. The board evaluated that “Park is a person who has achieved leads to digital transformation (DX) and business-to-business (B2B) sectors primarily based on his KT enterprise expertise and technology-based administration capabilities.”
Park joined Korea Telecom, KT’s predecessor, in 1992 and has served as head of the company enterprise division and company sector head. He can be formally appointed as CEO after the common shareholders’ assembly in March subsequent 12 months. This marks his choice as KT’s subsequent CEO candidate after his fourth try, following earlier makes an attempt in 2019 and March and July 2023. He has been acknowledged for his achievements within the B2B sector via roles in future enterprise improvement, world enterprise, and company divisions. Expectations are excessive that he’ll display crisis-overcoming management able to organizational stability and inner concord, given his deep understanding of KT’s inner affairs.
The highest precedence for KT’s subsequent CEO is managing the hacking aftermath. The investigation by the public-private joint investigation staff concerning the unauthorized micro-payment incidents that started final September continues to be ongoing. The brand new CEO should set up recurrence prevention measures following the investigation staff’s closing announcement. Provided that KT beforehand revealed plans to take a position over 1 trillion received in info safety over 5 years, critics level out that particular measures able to restoring belief should be included.
Furthermore, following the Coupang private info leak incident, the federal government is pursuing measures to extend sanctions for safety incidents, making safety enhancement extra pressing for telecommunications firms. On this regard, the Ministry of Science and ICT determined to determine punitive fines that impose a further most of three% of gross sales income, separate from present fines, for firms that repeatedly leak info.
This has led to elevated uncertainty within the telecommunications business’s efficiency. KT is taking a conservative outlook on its fourth-quarter efficiency this 12 months as a result of influence of free SIM card replacements and penalty payment waivers for affected clients. Subsequently, the restructuring of low-profit and non-core companies that has been pursued continues as a process for the brand new CEO. The significance of profitability enchancment has notably elevated according to the federal government’s value-up (company worth enhancement) coverage. In keeping with the Company Worth Enhancement Plan disclosed final month, KT is pursuing structural enhancements for 39 low-profit companies together with good cities and solar energy development. Moreover, the corporate has targeted on bettering asset effectivity via asset securitization of idle actual property unrelated to the telecommunications enterprise.
The brand new CEO additionally faces the duty of guaranteeing a mushy touchdown for AI companies that had slowed considerably as a result of hacking aftermath. Above all, as a nationwide spine telecommunications service, the corporate should speed up the enlargement of AI infrastructure together with AI knowledge facilities according to the federal government’s objective of turning into one of many high three AI powers. Securing AI know-how capabilities can also be pressing, as the corporate was excluded from the federal government’s impartial AI basis mannequin mission. From a efficiency perspective, AI-centered structural enchancment can also be required. KT plans to extend its AI and knowledge know-how (IT) income share (on a standalone foundation) from 7% final 12 months to over 19% by 2028.
Accordingly, business analysts count on that Park, together with his robust B2B experience, will speed up AI transformation by strengthening exterior collaboration. CEO Kim Younger-seop developed AI companies via partnerships with Microsoft and Palantir. Park is predicted to deal with synergy methods that may facilitate abroad enlargement via AI collaboration with world tech firms. Prof. Kim Yong-jin of Sogang College identified, “The brand new CEO should current a imaginative and prescient on how KT, as a community firm, can excel in AI enterprise by using AI and knowledge.”
