Ecopro Appoints Former Samsung Electronics Executive as Head of Safety Control Tower Office

Establishment of EHS Support Office... Yeonchanggyo, Executive Director with 30 Years of Experience, Appointed as First Head

Battery materials company EcoPro has established a control tower organization to oversee safety and environmental matters.

EcoPro announced on the 17th that it has set up the 'EHS Support Office' under its holding company, EcoPro. The organization’s name is derived from the initials of Environment, Health, and Safety.

EcoPro appointed Yeon Changgyo, who has over 30 years of experience in safety and environmental fields at Samsung Electronics, as the inaugural head of the EHS Support Office. Yeon joined the EcoPro Group in 2022 and was responsible for safety and environmental tasks at EcoPro BM.

Yeon said, "Safety and environment are EcoPro’s management principles that cannot be exchanged for anything else and are the foundation for growing into a global company. We will spare no investment and support for safety, environmental, and health activities so that our employees can work in a safe and pleasant environment."

The EHS Support Office is responsible for establishing and leading regulations to ensure that employees of affiliated companies work in a hazard-free environment. It handles system maintenance, accident prevention, and employee training.

Employees of the EHS Support Office at Ecopro are inspecting production site facilities.
[Photo by Ecopro]

Additionally, with the expansion of the Serious Accident Punishment Act and the strengthening of safety and environmental laws, the office plans to enhance pre-sensing functions for workplaces to prevent risk occurrences. Sensing refers to the technology of collecting and utilizing information from the surrounding environment, commonly used in the industry.

In the long term, the EHS Support Office plans to provide guidelines for safety and environmental matters for employees of partner companies as well.

EcoPro has also significantly increased its investments in the safety and environmental sector. EcoPro BM, which produces cathode materials, increased its investment in environmental safety from around 50 billion KRW in 2021 to 70 billion KRW in 2022 and approximately 100 billion KRW in 2023. Each affiliated company has also expanded investments in safety and environment to a comparable level.

EcoPro stated, "As a result of these safety and environmental investment efforts, EcoPro Materials, which produces precursors, received an S grade in the Process Safety Management (PSM) implementation status evaluation from the Ministry of Employment and Labor at the end of last year." The S grade is the second highest among the four safety management levels (P grade, S grade, M+ grade, M- grade).