Jaeheon Jung, SKT CEO, Holds First Town Hall Meeting Since Appointment: "I Will Be the Chief Change Executive Officer"

Telecommunications: Focusing on Fundamentals and Principles... AI to Pursue "Selection and Concentration"
Aiming for "Dynamic Stability" as the Core of Organizational Culture
"Management Will Take Responsibility for Failure... Unleash Your Creativity and Take on Challenges"
Key Indicators Shift Toward Qualitative Growth over Quantitative Expansion

Jaeheon Jung, CEO and President of SK Telecom, held his first town hall meeting with employees since taking office in October, where he shared the direction of key businesses and corporate culture. During the event, Jung announced his commitment to innovating for the rapid evolution of both the core mobile network operator (MNO) business and the future-focused artificial intelligence (AI) business, while maintaining fundamental principles.

At the town hall meeting held on the morning of the 16th at the SKT headquarters Suprex Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, Jung stated, "From now on, the 'C' in CEO will stand for 'Change.' Going forward, I will serve as our company's Chief Change Executive Officer," emphasizing his commitment to transformation.

Jaeheon Jung, CEO of SK Telecom, is speaking at the town hall meeting held on the morning of the 16th at the SUPEX Hall in the SKT building, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by SK Telecom

During the town hall meeting, Jung shared with employees the direction and challenges of SK Telecom's main businesses-telecommunications, AI, and AI transformation (AX)-as well as the area of corporate culture.

Jung first underscored the importance of a customer-centric telecommunications business. He said, "The customer is the very essence of our business," stressing the need to communicate directly with customers, understand them, and deliver tangible value. He set a goal to restore customer trust by making quality assurance and safety, as well as fundamental principles, the core priorities. This remark appears to reference the USIM information leak incident that occurred in April.

In the AI business, SK Telecom will pursue competitiveness through selection and concentration. Jung said, "We have repeatedly conducted new experiments and incubations, securing tangible and intangible assets to some extent. From now on, we must focus on areas where we excel and compete at the pace of global big tech companies." He identified the need to build competitiveness in the AI data center sector and expand into high value-added solution areas as key tasks. For manufacturing AI and proprietary AI models, he suggested achieving results through transformation.

Regarding the evolution of work methods through AX, Jung stressed that all employees must participate. To this end, SK Telecom will: ▲ support all employees in utilizing AI tools ▲ establish a process for developing AI for work ▲ build an AX dashboard, among other initiatives.

Additionally, SK Telecom will shift its core management indicator from EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) to ROIC (Return on Invested Capital) to improve management fundamentals. ROIC is an indicator used to assess capital efficiency and value creation, and is useful for setting long-term competitiveness and investment priorities. According to SK Telecom, this move reflects its intention to shift its management paradigm from quantitative growth to a focus on "real productivity," evaluating how effectively capital is used.

For organizational culture, Jung proposed "dynamic stability" as the goal. This means that employees will proactively participate and take on challenges in response to environmental changes, contributing to organizational growth, while the company will provide opportunities to work without fear of failure. Jung stated, "In a market and management environment that changes constantly, simply working hard in the old ways-what I call 'active inertia'-will not drive change. Management will take responsibility for failures, so I urge employees to unleash their creativity and take on challenges without hesitation."

Jung also said, "For SK Telecom to rise again, all employees must share the company's values and possess both the enterprising capabilities for concrete action and the unwavering inner strength to see it through. Let us become the dream team that makes this a reality."

He quoted a phrase from the Mokmin Simseo, which means "the foundation of discerning right from wrong lies in listening with sincerity." Jung added, "My past experiences have given me strengths in objectively assessing situations and listening to employees' voices. I am determined to make the best decisions with humility and respect."

Jaeheon Jung, CEO of SK Telecom, is speaking at the town hall meeting held on the morning of the 16th at the SUPEX Hall in the SKT building, Jung-gu, Seoul. Provided by SK Telecom