Prohibition on Concurrent Service as Outside Director for Largest Shareholder
KT announced on December 17 that Cho Seungah has lost her position as an outside director at KT due to a conflict of interest with Hyundai Motor Group, where she is the largest shareholder.
On this day, KT disclosed through the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system (DART), "Our outside director Cho Seungah has lost her position as an outside director in accordance with Article 542-8, Paragraph 2 of the Commercial Act."
KT discovered an issue with Cho’s qualifications as an outside director during the review process for candidates to be nominated as outside directors at next year's regular general shareholders’ meeting.
The current Commercial Act stipulates that if the largest shareholder is a corporation, any director, auditor, executive officer, or employee of that corporation loses their eligibility to serve as an outside director.
Cho was appointed as a KT director in June 2023, and in March 2024, she was also appointed as an outside director at Hyundai Steel, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group.
After the National Pension Service, which had been KT’s largest shareholder, sold part of its stake in March last year, Hyundai Motor became KT’s largest shareholder in April of the same year. As a result, Cho could no longer concurrently serve as an outside director at KT.
Cho’s resignation as an outside director is retroactively applied to March 26 of last year, the date she was appointed as an outside director at Hyundai Steel. Due to her resignation, all KT board resolutions in which Cho participated from that date until today are rendered invalid.
This has become a source of controversy, as the KT Director Recommendation Committee, which included Cho, decided the previous day to nominate former Business Division Head Park Yoon-young as the final candidate for the next CEO.
KT stated that Cho did not participate in the interview process for the three candidates, including former President Park, which took place the previous day.
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