South Korea’s leading broadband and mobile carrier KT Corp. officially announced the second term of its chief executive Hwang Chang-gyu who will lead the company for another three years until 2020.

Shareholders of KT approved Hwang’s reappointment to the position during the company’s 35th general shareholders’ meeting held in Seoul on Friday. Hwang was recommended as the sole candidate for the top position by the company’s directors thanks to his performance during his first term.

When Hwang first took the helm of KT in 2014, the mobile carrier saw an operating loss amounting 400 billion won ($356 million). Under Hwang’s leadership, it made a dramatic turnaround in 2015 with 1.3 trillion won in operating profit on a consolidated basis. For full 2016, it reported its best performance in five years with its operating profit reaching 1.44 trillion won.

However, KT was embroiled in the scandal involving the dismissed President Park Geun-hye and her shadowy friend Choi Soon-sil. While endorsing his next term, the shareholders asked Hwang to establish more transparent and independent corporate governance as part of efforts to break such cosy ties with politics.

Hwang reaffirmed the company will focus on five platform businesses - including media, smart energy, corporate and public values, financial transaction, and disaster and safety management during the meeting.

KT will lead the industry by launching the world’s first commercial service of fifth-generation (5G) mobile network by 2019 and providing services combined with big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and platform business, CEO Hwang pledged again. He also vowed to transform KT into a platform operator by achieving more than 30 percent revenues from non-telecom business areas by 2020.

By Lim Sung-hyun

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