GS Construction Appoints Lawyer Jo Hee-jin as Its First Female Outside Director

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] GS Engineering & Construction is appointing its first female outside director.

GS Engineering & Construction announced on the 3rd that at the board meeting on the 25th of last month, it decided to propose the appointment of Cho Hee-jin, the representative lawyer of the law firm Dambak, as an outside director at the regular shareholders' meeting. Lawyer Cho is expected to be appointed as the new outside director following the resolution at this month's regular shareholders' meeting. The term of office is three years starting from March this year.

A GS Engineering & Construction official explained, "This is a measure to proactively respond to the revised Capital Markets Act and to strengthen ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), fair trade, compliance support, and expertise in each business sector within the board."

According to the amendment to the "Capital Markets and Financial Investment Business Act" passed at the end of last year, from August next year, listed companies with assets exceeding 2 trillion won must not compose their entire board of directors with members of a single gender.

Lawyer Cho was commissioned as a prosecutor in 1989 and served as the first female chief prosecutor, deputy chief, branch chief, chief prosecutor, and district prosecutor. She ended her public service career in June 2018 as the chief prosecutor of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office and has been working as the representative lawyer of the law firm Dambak since September of the same year.