South Korea’s third biggest conglomerate SK Group promoted 163 employees to executive-level positions on Thursday, rewarding 41 with executive titles at SK Hynix for its massive profits this year.

Three at SK Hynix earned the vice president title in the group-wide reshuffle that kept changes at the CEO level at a minimum for sustainability in operations.

Cho Kyung-mok, head of the finance division at SK Holdings Co., was promoted to chief executive of SK Energy Co. The finance veteran previously led the financial management division at SK Telecom Co.

Jang Yong-ho, head of the PM2 department at SK Holdings, was named the new head of SK Materials Co. He is credited for his role in acquiring OCI Materials in 2015 to form the current unit, a move widely seen as the group’s significant foray into the materials industry.

SK Planet CEO Suh Sung-won would now head the mobile network operator division at SK Telecom, while his position would be taken by Lee Inn-chan, head of the service division at SK Telecom.

Ahn Jung-ok was appointed as president of SK C&C Co. and Ahn Jae-hyun as president of SK Engineering and Construction’s Global Biz division.

The group also seated a larger number of young employees to senior executive positions. Lee Jong-min, head of the Media Infra Lab at SK Telecom, earned the title as the youngest SK executive at 39. He won the group’s innovation award this year for developing and commercializing a new mobile technology for real-time video broadcasts.

The average age of the new executives is 48.7, with 30 percent of them born in the 1970s, according to the group.

Among the four newly-appointed female executives was Cai Lianchun, a Chinese recruit who led the global business development team at SK Energy. She was recognized for her role in successfully completing SK Global Chemical’s Wuhan project in China.

By Kang Doo-soon and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]