Lotte Replaces 14 CEOs... Shin Yu-yeol to Lead Group's New Business Initiatives

Discovering New Businesses and Strengthening Core Business Competitiveness
14 Changes Including Lotte Chemical Group CEO

Recruitment of External Experts as New CEOs for Trading and e-Commerce
Female CEO Appointed at Lotte AMC

On the 6th, Lotte held board meetings for 38 affiliates including Lotte Holdings and carried out the regular executive appointments for 2024 at each company. It was explained that the executive appointments were prepared to secure future competitiveness and strengthen sustainable growth strategies amid increasing uncertainties in the internal and external business environment.

Lee Hoon-ki, General Representative of Lotte Chemical Group [Photo by Lotte Holdings].

The direction of this year's Lotte Group executive appointments can be summarized as the forward placement of young leadership to continue innovation, redeployment of key talents to advance the core business portfolio, expansion of external expert recruitment, and strengthening of global capabilities and female leadership. As a result, while the overall number of executives did not change significantly, major management personnel were largely replaced compared to last year.

Kim Gyo-hyun, Vice Chairman and General Head of Lotte Group’s Chemical Division who led the chemical business for five years, has retired, and the successor is Lee Hoon-ki, President and Head of ESG Management Innovation Office at Lotte Holdings. Born in 1967, Lee Hoon-ki joined the group in 1990 through the Group Planning and Coordination Office, served as Head of Planning at Lotte Chemical in 2010, and CEO of Lotte Rental in 2019. Since 2020, he has been leading the ESG Management Innovation Office at Lotte Holdings, overseeing mergers and acquisitions (M&&) and discovering future new businesses. Lee is recognized as a strategy, planning, and new business expert who will enhance the market competitiveness of chemical affiliates by improving existing business capabilities and completing the business portfolio, while promoting diversification of global business.

Vice Chairman Kim Gyo-hyun, who is retiring from the frontline for the group’s new leap and change, led the acquisition and growth of LC Titan, Lotte Chemical’s petrochemical subsidiary in Malaysia. He also spearheaded the growth of Lotte’s chemical business through projects such as establishing an ethane cracker plant in Louisiana, USA, and developing a large-scale petrochemical complex in Indonesia known as the 'Line Project.'

Lee Young-gu, Chief Executive Officer of Lotte Food Group (Vice Chairman)
[Photo by Lotte Holdings].

Lee Young-gu, President and General Head of the Food Division, has been promoted to Vice Chairman. He was recognized for his achievements in creating a stable profitable structure by overseeing the merger of Lotte Confectionery and Lotte Foods, improving the food division’s portfolio, expanding global business, and securing new growth engines through future food discovery.

Through this executive appointment, Lotte is accelerating generational change among affiliate CEOs. Eight CEOs in their 60s from Lotte affiliates have stepped down, and a total of 14 affiliate CEOs, including them, have been replaced. By appointing Woo Woong-jo, Managing Director (promoted) as CEO of Lotte Healthcare, the number of CEOs in their 40s has increased to three, including Lee Won-jik, CEO of Lotte Biologics, and Jung Hyun-seok, CEO of FRL Korea.

Three executives were promoted to President: Ko Soo-chan, Vice President and Head of Management Improvement Office at Lotte Holdings; Ko Jung-wook, Vice President and Head of Financial Innovation Office at Lotte Holdings; and Jung Jun-ho, Vice President at Lotte Department Store. This is the largest number of president-level promotions in the past three years. The president rank has become five years younger compared to the previous year.

President Ko Soo-chan has led management diagnosis and work system improvements across all Lotte Group affiliates as Head of the Management Improvement Office at Lotte Holdings. President Ko Jung-wook was recognized for forming the 'Financial Strategy Task Force' last year to improve financial indicators of affiliates and for early resolution of liquidity crises caused by contingent liabilities (PF) at Lotte Construction. President Jung Jun-ho, an externally recruited fashion MD expert, led performance improvement through Lotte Department Store’s unique premium strategy despite worsening consumer sentiment due to the economic downturn.

Lotte recruited external experts with global competitiveness in various business fields to strengthen existing business competitiveness and expand overseas operations. Jang Jae-hoon, CEO of JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) Korea, was appointed CEO of Lotte Property & Development; Park Ik-jin, Head of Global Operations Group at Affinity Equity Partners, was appointed CEO of Lotte e-commerce; and Kim So-yeon, CEO of HL REITs Management, was nominated as CEO of Lotte AMC. Lotte Global Logistics is also in the process of appointing a logistics expert from outside as CEO.

Jang Jae-hoon, nominated as the new CEO of Lotte Property & Development, is currently CEO of JLL Korea, a global comprehensive real estate asset management service company, and a real estate asset management expert with 23 years of broad experience in real estate-related work. Lotte expects Jang to transform Lotte Property & Development into a global comprehensive real estate company based on his expertise.

Park Ik-jin has consulting experience in managing commerce platform companies, marketing, products, and new businesses. He is expected to significantly contribute to the turnaround of Lotte e-commerce and synergy creation with the Ocado system. Kim So-yeon, Executive Director, is the first female CEO in domestic real estate asset management. She has worked for over 30 years in real estate development, consulting, and asset management. Based on her expertise in real estate asset management, she plans to activate not only the securitization of real estate assets held by existing Lotte affiliates but also new real estate investments.

In September, Lotte recruited Shin Min-wook, Executive Director, as CEO of Lotte GFR, and in October, Lee Don-tae, President, as Head of Design Strategy Center at Lotte Holdings, bringing the total number of externally recruited CEO-level executives this year to six.

Shin Yu-yeol, Head of Future Growth Office at Lotte Holdings Photo by Lotte Holdings.

Lotte Holdings has established a Future Growth Office dedicated to global and new businesses to manage new businesses such as bio and healthcare and to discover a second growth engine. The new head of the Future Growth Office is Shin Yoo-yeol, Executive Director (promoted) of Lotte Chemical’s Basic Materials Division. Based on his diverse global investment experience, Shin will undertake the important role of developing the group’s mid- to long-term vision, discovering new growth engines, and expanding future new businesses. Shin also concurrently serves as Head of Global Strategy Office at Lotte Biologics. By directly participating in the management of the bio business, a core of Lotte Group’s future growth, he plans to successfully lead its growth into a global CDMO company.