Posco to Elect Next Chairman Without Choi Jung-woo's Position Statement... Final Candidates to Be Shortlisted in February

POSCO. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The POSCO Holdings CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Candidate Recommendation Committee will recommend one candidate for the next chairman to the board of directors by mid-February next year.

POSCO Holdings announced on the 21st that the CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee held its first meeting and made this decision. With the CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee officially starting its activities from this day, which is three months before the expiration of the current chairman Choi Jeong-woo's term, the process of selecting the next chairman has begun. Prior to this, POSCO Holdings held an extraordinary board meeting on the same day and approved the agenda regarding the operation of the CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee.

At the first meeting of the CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee, Park Hee-jae, chairman of the board, was appointed as the committee chair, and the committee members, consisting of all seven outside directors, discussed the schedule for appointing the chairman and plans for identifying internal and external chairman candidates.

First, by mid-January next year, a 'long list' of candidates combining internal and external personnel will be prepared based on the basic qualifications and evaluation guidelines for chairman candidates. After referring to the evaluation results from the chairman candidate selection advisory group on the long list, the candidates will be narrowed down to a 'short list' by the end of January. Then, in February next year, the list will be further narrowed to 'finalists,' and through in-depth interviews, one final candidate will be selected and recommended to the board. Accordingly, the process of selecting the next POSCO chairman will proceed without the current chairman Choi Jeong-woo needing to express his intention to renew his term 90 days before the shareholders' meeting.

The identification of chairman candidates will include executives who have gone through the internal chairman development program (Top Talents Program) and candidates recommended by major shareholders externally. Various candidates meeting the qualifications for chairman will also be recommended through multiple leading domestic and international search firms.

The CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee also disclosed detailed criteria for the five basic qualification requirements for chairman candidates (management capability, industry expertise, global competency, leadership, integrity and ethics) announced at the board meeting on December 19.

The detailed criteria for the five categories are as follows: ▲Management capability (vision and value proposition, strategic thinking/decision-making, innovation leadership and crisis response), ▲Industry expertise (insight into the group’s core industries and discovery of business opportunities, understanding of future new technologies), ▲Global competency (understanding of global environment/culture, establishment and operation of global business strategies), ▲Leadership (talent development, communication skills), and ▲Integrity and ethics (integrity, management ethics/compliance, harmony with social values). These 12 detailed criteria will be used as evaluation guidelines for candidates during the chairman selection process.

Going forward, the CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee will disclose the schedule and key results of chairman candidate recommendations and conduct a transparent and fair chairman appointment process.

POSCO Holdings stated, "The CEO Candidate Recommendation Committee will continue to disclose the schedule and key results of chairman candidate recommendations to ensure a transparent and fair chairman appointment process."