Ku Hyeon-mo chosen as only candidate for KT CEO spot

KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo has been chosen as the only candidate for CEO, according to the company Wednesday.

KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo [KT]

KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo has been chosen as the only candidate for CEO, according to the company Wednesday.

Ku said he wanted to serve another term but asked a board committee to consider other candidates “due to concerns raised by major shareholders regarding the company’s management structure.”

The board committee chose Ku as the only candidate after reviewing multiple candidates.

According to KT, Ku’s leadership skills and bold business portfolio restructuring were some factors in choosing him as the final candidate. He is anticipated to be the first person to have achieved 16 trillion won (12.6 billion won) in services sales during his term. The share price was up 90 percent in late November compared to the price when he took office in March 2020.

Whether Ku will serve for another term will be decided after shareholders vote in a general meeting set for March next year.

KT was founded in 1981 as a state-run telecommunications company and become a private company when the government sold all its shares in May 2002. The NPS owns 12.68 percent of KT,

Ku joined KT in 1987 as a researcher at the economics research center within the company. He has been leading the “Digico” campaign, where KT has been trying to reduce its dependence on the telecommunications businesses.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]