S-Oil Corp. has picked Saudi Aramco’s former global refining coordinator Nasser Al-Mahasher as its new chief executive, Korea’s third-largest refiner said in a regulatory filing.

The announcement came after meetings of the Seoul-based company’s shareholders and board of directors on Friday. Aramco, the Middle Eastern country’s state-run oil group, is the largest stakeholder of S-Oil.

Al-Mahasher will take office immediately, succeeding Ahmed A. Subaey, who will return to the Dhahran headquarters after his four-year term, the company said.

Al-Mahasher, 52, has been with Aramco since 1990 in a variety of posts in areas from technology and engineering to marketing and management.

He has also accumulated management know-how and accustomed himself to the Asian business culture while heading the Tokyo unit of Saudi Petroleum Ltd., an Aramco subsidiary, over the last four years, company officials said.

Al-Mahasher earned a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in the U.S. and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)