Shareholders of Doosan Corp., the holding company of Doosan Group, approved the directorship of its chairman Park Jeong-won in their annual meeting on Friday.
He has been given the mission of a business turnaround.
“Despite the continued downturn of the global economy, the management is confident of a turnaround this year, boosted by expected growth in new business areas such as fuel cell and duty-free shop operations,” Doosan Corp. vice chairman Lee Jae-kyung said at the shareholders meeting.
Soon after the meeting, the company also hosted the first board meeting and named the 54-year-old founding family member as the board chair, the chairman seat at Doosan Group.
Doosan Group new chairman Park Jeong-won (Yonhap)
The succession at the nation’s 11th largest conglomerate, whose main businesses are power and construction equipment, has been expected since his predecessor Park Yong-maan stepped down on March 2 and nominated his nephew as his successor.
With the new chairman, Doosan also ushered in the fourth generation era of the founding family. Jeong-won is the oldest great grandson of the group founder Park Seung-jik.
The new group chairman joined Doosan Industrial in 1985 and has been working for the group for 31 years. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University in 1989.
Despite raising the hope for change with the new leadership, the new board of Doosan Corp. came under fire due to doubts over its capability and independence of outside board members.
“Doosan is ranked in the top three with Lotte and Shinsegae in the ratio of ex-bureaucrats to the newly-appointed or reappointed outside directors this year,” CeoScore, a local think tank on business leadership, said in a recent statement.
As for changes in leadership of other conglomerates, shareholders of Hyundai Heavy Industries and LG Corp. extended the three-year term of their current board chairmen.
By 2018, Choi Kil-seon, chairman of the nation’s top shipbuilder, will seek reform measures for restoration of the core business.
Backed by shareholders, LG Group chairman Koo Bon-Moo will continue to oversee the board of LG Corp., the holding company of the nation’s fourth-largest conglomerate by assets.
LG Group pledged to consolidate its business portfolio by pouring more resources into new growth engine businesses such as automotive parts and energy solutions.
“Amid fierce competition, we will take preemptive measures to promptly respond to industrial changes,” chairman Koo Bon-moo said in his note to shareholders.
“We will continue investments into car parts and energy solutions areas, in which we have seen tangible results over the past years. We will also make efforts to nurture new growth engine businesses.”
Despite overall sluggish sales of the group’s flagship LG Electronics, the chairman praised its organic-light emitting diode display TVs and dual-load washing machine Twin Wash for elevating brand awareness of the firm in the premium appliance market.
Meanwhile, Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho was removed from the board of Lotte Confectionery for the first time in the company’s history, which will cement the control of his second son Shin Dong-bin over the nation’s largest retail giant.
By Seo Jee-yeon, Lee Ji-yoon (jyseo@heraldcorp.com), (jylee@heraldcorp.com)