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| Shareholders of KT verify their identification before entering the shareholders meeting venue at the company's office in Seocho District, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap |
Company expects it will take at least five months to choose new CEO
By Baek Byung-yeul
KT vowed Friday to normalize its management quickly by improving its governance structure, as concerns are mounting over its future after failing to select a new company CEO, due largely to the government and ruling party officials' political interference.
After its CEO Ku Hyeon-mo resigned from his post on March 28, Park Jong-ook, the president and head of the company's Corporate Planning Group, was appointed as interim CEO in accordance with the company's organizational regulations.
"As the saying goes, 'the ground hardens after the rain,' we will try to overcome the current crisis and take another leap forward," Park said during a shareholders meeting in Seoul.
He admitted there had been "issues in the process of appointing the company's next CEO," and said "it will take around five months to appoint a new CEO. We will try to shorten the emergency management system as much as possible."
KT's management has been repeatedly swayed by political influence this year. Earlier this year, the government virtually forced Ku to step down and its largest shareholder, the National Pension Service (NPS), also opposed his attempt at a second term.
As Ku gave up seeking another term, KT nominated Yun Kyung-lim, head of its group transformation division, for CEO on March 7, but he also withdrew his name from consideration on March 27 after being criticized by the ruling party's lawmakers as an "avatar" of Ku, who had been appointed during the previous administration.
Also on the agenda for Friday's shareholders meeting was a vote on extending the one-year terms of three external board directors, but this was scrapped as they resigned just before the meeting.
During the meeting, minor shareholders strongly criticized the company's management for its lack of transparency and continuing to be influenced by political pressure.
A shareholder introducing him as an operator of a Naver online community for KT shareholders, demanded that the company "change the articles of the corporation, referring to the case of KB Kookmin Bank, which prevented non-professional politicians from taking key positions in the company during its next shareholders' meeting."
He also called on the company to increase dividends and retire its treasury stocks in order to improve the mobile carrier's value.
Meanwhile, KT added a facility rental business to the corporation's articles describing its business purposes after having it approved at the shareholders meeting. This change was made to expand its business-to-customer business and promote the facility rental business.
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