KT picks CEO Koo as sole candidate to lead company for another three years

Koo Hyun-mo [Photo by Han Joo-hyung]

KT Corp. will seek approval from its shareholders to extend current Chief Executive Officer Koo Hyun-mo’s term for another three years.

KT’s board of directors announced Wednesday that Koo has been picked as the final candidate for the CEO position. Once approved at the general shareholders meeting, he will begin his second three-year term in March 2023.

The telecoms firm’s CEO candidate review committee had considered extending Koo‘s term from the beginning but expanded the review to others from outside upon confronting challenges from National Pension Service, one of the company’s major shareholders. Koo also proposed to the committee to review others as CEO candidates, although he had initially expressed that he was willing to serve for another term.

Koo has been transforming KT’s operations to grow beyond its mainstay telecom business by actively developing artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and other new businesses. The company’s revenue from service operations is estimated to exceed 16 trillion won ($12.6 billion) this year for the first time. Its market capitalization topped 10 trillion won in August, with the share price jumping 90 percent over the past three years under Koo’s leadership.