New SK Telecom President Jung Jai-hun, left, and new SK Group Vice Chairman Lee Hyung-hee / Courtesy of SK Telecom and the National Assembly Press Corps.
SK Telecom named its chief governance officer as new president Thursday, months after a hacking incident exposed the data of 25 million customers.
SK Group said SK Telecom’s CGO, Jung Jai-hun, has been appointed as the company’s new president. Ryu Young-sang, who had served as president since 2021, has moved to the SK SUPEX Council, where he now leads the artificial intelligence (AI) committee. The council, comprising the CEOs of SK subsidiaries, serves as the group’s control tower and sets overall strategies.
Under its new leader, SK Telecom has been reorganized into two company-in-company (CIC) units focused on telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI), respectively.
Han Myung-jin, CEO of the group’s investment arm SK Square, now heads the telecommunications CIC. He is tasked with strengthening SK Telecom’s competitiveness and restoring public trust after the data breach, which drew strong backlash from customers and lawmakers.
The reshuffle is part of the group’s broader reorganization of top executives across key subsidiaries, intended to elevate leaders with extensive field experience and strong research and development backgrounds to enhance the conglomerate’s problem-solving capabilities.
“The leadership reshuffle is intended to promptly address challenges faced by each key subsidiary, reinforce the group’s leadership structure, and leverage their on-site management and business execution capabilities,” a group official said.
As part of the changes, SK Inc., the group’s holding company, appointed Kang Dong-soo, a financial and business development expert in the company, as its new president.
Lee Hyung-hee, chair of the SUPEX Council’s Communication Committee, has been promoted to vice chairman of SK Group, marking the first vice chairman promotion in four years.
SK Innovation E&S appointed Lee Jong-soo, head of its liquefied natural gas division, as president, while semiconductor giant SK hynix promoted Cha Seon-yong, head of its Future Technology Research Institute, to president.
Other subsidiaries that appointed new presidents include SK On, SKC, SK Ecoplant, SK Inc. Materials, SK AX and SK Siltron.