SK Inno, SK Energy and Other Key Subsidiaries Appoint Presidents
Executives Born in the 1970s and Engineers Successively Selected
Is This Trend of Personnel Renewal Also Reflected in Group-Wide HR Changes?
SK Innovation has initiated organizational reform by replacing three CEOs of its affiliates ahead of its merger with SK E&S. The company has formed new leadership composed of individuals with on-site and technical expertise to overcome the crisis and strengthen competitiveness. This move is seen as setting the keyword for the group’s executive appointments in December.
Major SK Innovation Affiliates Undergo Personnel Renewal... Emphasizing On-site and Technical Expertise
SK Innovation appointed Kim Jong-hwa, head of the Ulsan Complex (CLX), as CEO of its affiliate SK Energy. Choi An-seop, head of the Materials Business Division, and Lee Sang-min, head of SK Enmove’s Green Growth Division, were appointed as CEOs of SK Geocentric and SK IE Technology (IET), respectively. The current CEOs?Oh Jong-hoon (SK Energy), Na Kyung-soo (SK Geocentric), and Kim Cheol-jung (SK IET)?will step down from their management positions.
The newly appointed CEOs all have backgrounds in science and engineering. They are regarded as capable of delivering tangible results in SK Innovation’s ongoing ‘Operation Improvement (OI)’ strategy. The company stated, "We will maximize the overall performance of our affiliates by focusing on technology and on-site operations."
Kim Jong-hwa, appointed as president of SK Energy, is an engineer with extensive experience in refining and chemical businesses, recognized as a production expert. The company explained that he is expected to contribute to continuous profit generation by ensuring stable process operations and product competitiveness amid uncertain management environments such as recent oil price fluctuations.
Choi An-seop, appointed president of SK Geocentric and head of the Materials Business Division, has been in charge of R&D. He has gained experience and capabilities in developing high value-added products through key positions such as head of the Optimal Operations Office and Strategy Headquarters at the company.
Lee Sang-min, newly appointed president of SK IE Technology, also comes from an R&D background. He developed advanced technologies at SK Corporation’s Technology Innovation Center and built capabilities in growth businesses as head of SK Enmove’s Green Growth Business Division. During this time, he successfully established key new businesses such as HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) and e-Fluids for electric vehicles in a short period, reorganizing SK Enmove’s growth strategy. His appointment as CEO is planned to be proposed at the regular shareholders’ meeting in March next year.
Notably, this personnel move also highlights the appointment of CEOs born in the 1970s. Choi An-seop and Lee Sang-min were born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. The company explained that this was intended to prepare for a challenging future with younger leadership.
This personnel change took place ahead of the merger between SK Innovation and SK E&S scheduled for the 1st of next month, which will launch the ‘Integrated SK Innovation.’ It has attracted attention as it may indicate the direction of the group’s executive appointments in December. On-site and technical capabilities are expected to be the core keywords of the personnel decisions.
Along with the appointment of the new president of SK Geocentric, the company also implemented a follow-up organizational restructuring that promoted three individuals with proven performance and capabilities to executive positions. An SK Innovation official stated, "We have made CEO appointments to quickly stabilize the organization in line with portfolio adjustments and to strongly promote OI."
About a Month Left Until SK Group’s Personnel Appointments... Will Young, On-site CEOs Be Appointed?
With SK Innovation’s C-level personnel changes, attention is also focused on the direction of SK Group’s personnel appointments expected in early December. SK Group has been pushing a high-intensity rebalancing (structural adjustment) effort since the beginning of this year. The launch of Integrated SK Innovation was also part of this rebalancing.
SK Group is known to begin its year-end personnel work in earnest after the ‘CEO Seminar’ held on the 31st of this month. The CEO Seminar, along with the June Management Strategy Meeting (formerly the Expanded Management Meeting) and the August Icheon Forum, is considered one of SK Group’s major annual events. It is a gathering where affiliate CEOs share next year’s management policies ahead of the year-end personnel appointments.
SK REITs (SK Entrusted Management Real Estate Investment Company) will enter the KOSPI market next month. On the 18th, the SK Group headquarters located in Jongno-gu, SK Seorin Building. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@
This year, the seminar will be held from the 31st of this month to the 2nd of next month at the SKMS Research Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, with Chairman Chey Tae-won and Chairman Choi Chang-won of the SK Supex Council attending. The seminar is expected to diagnose global geopolitical issues and changes in the management environment due to the expansion of the AI market, as well as review group-wide rebalancing activities. Earlier, in the personnel changes announced on the 17th for SK Ecoplant, the number of executives was reduced by 23%, from 66 to 51. This has led to speculation that SK Group as a whole may have set a policy to reduce the number of executives by more than 20%.
The recent personnel changes at SK Innovation, a key intermediate holding company of the group, provide insight into the group’s personnel direction. Amid the downturn in the refining and petrochemical industries, SK Innovation chose engineers and researchers with on-site experience as its new leadership. This reflects the judgment that in the midst of a complex crisis including global recession and geopolitical risks, the company must focus on ‘fundamental competitiveness’ centered on on-site and technical capabilities.
In particular, SK Innovation’s personnel changes have seen the appointment of CEOs born in the 1970s in succession. It is highly likely that young talents will also rise to C-level positions in the group’s personnel appointments. A business insider said, "SK Group’s management has been getting younger since last year’s vice chairman appointments. As the pace of industrial transformation accelerates, there is a growing need for younger C-level executives to respond accordingly."
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