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| LG Electronics shareholders attend the company's shareholders' meeting at LG Twin Towers on Yeouido in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
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| LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo |
Along with LG, POSCO, Kia Motors and other big name companies also each held a shareholder meeting and appointed fresh board members to solidify their new leaders' power.
LG Electronics shareholders approved appointing LG Corp. Vice Chairman Kwon Young-soo as an LG Electronics board member. The board then appointed Kwon its chairman.
As Kwon becomes the board's chairman, LG Electronics separated its management and board. LG Electronics' Vice Chairman Jo Seong-jin has been serving as the company's CEO and chairman of the board for the past two years, but he will focus on the management side, while Kwon will be handling board-level issues.
Kwon is a finance specialist, serving as chief financial officer of LG Electronics in the 2000s, and also known as Group Chairman Koo's close aide. After leading other core units of the group, such as LG Display and LG Uplus, he was appointed as vice chairman of LG Corp., the holding firm of the group, in July, a month after Koo became the head of the group.
At the meeting, another LG Corp. Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon stepped down from the LG Electronics board. He is the younger brother of the late Koo Bon-moo, former LG Group chairman and the current chairman's father.
Following the reshuffle, LG Electronics board has three inside directors ― Kwon, Jo and Jung Do-hyun, LG Electronics president and chief financial officer.
Kwon was also named as an inside director during a LG Display shareholder meeting on Friday. Chemicals unit LG Chem named its Vice Chairman Shin Hak-cheol as an inside director. Shin, a former vice president of 3M International Operations, was recruited by Koo last year.
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| POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo speaks during the steelmaker's shareholder meeting at its Seoul office, Friday. Courtesy of POSCO |
At POSCO, shareholders voted for six agenda including naming new inside directors. Following the vote, Vice Presidents Kim Hak-dong and Jeong Tak will replace President Oh In-hwan and Vice President Yoo Seong, in what appears to be a move to enhance new Chairman Choi Jeong-woo's grip on the steelmaker.
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| Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group |
At Kia Motors, another Hyundai Motor Group unit, the group's Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun was named as an inside director.
Unlike its affiliate Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors is not in a battle with U.S. hedge fund Elliott over dividend policies and naming new board members, because the carmaker is not in a status of excess capital.
