Doosan Group heir Park Seo-won has finally emerged as a likely successor of the country’s 14th-largest business conglomerate, having recently joined the company’s most important project in years.

The group said that Park was appointed to senior vice president of Doosan Corporation on Nov. 23, and will overlook marketing as well as other strategies of its duty-free operations. Park -- who already leads Doosan’s advertising agency Oricom and independent creative consulting firm Big Ant -- will split his time in making Doosan’s retail unit a success.

”Park will be the chief strategy officer, assisting CEO Dong Hyun-soo with the new business. Because the duty-free business needs a lot of creativity in marketing and promotions, Park, who already has abundant experience in the advertising field, is a perfect fit,” a Doosan spokesman told The Korea Herald.

Doosan Corp. won the state license on Nov. 14 to operate an urban duty-free store in the tourist-frequented Dongdaemun district in central Seoul, and is slated to start operations in May next year, stocking products of more than 370 brands. 

This is a deviation from Doosan’s decades of focus on heavy industries, but also highlights the dire situation of the company’s cash flow: In the first six months, Doosan Corp. marked a loss of 66.9 billion won ($57.7 million), while Doosan Heavy Industries, Doosan Infracore and Doosan E&C saw 114 billion won, 34.4 billion won and 86.5 billion won losses, respectively.

With the cash-oriented duty-free business added to the portfolio, Doosan may ease the strain, company insiders said. In fact, the price of Doosan Corp. stock skyrocketed after the bid results, reflecting market expectations.

And Park Seo-won, who once branded himself the “black sheep” of the family for pursuing unfamiliar businesses like advertising, stepped up to support his father and Doosan chairman Park Yong-maan in the critical stage of his business, hinting that the man who used to be shy about taking over the business has finally decided to join the succession race. The eldest son of Park Yong-maan had acquired 1.8 percent, or 472,239 shares, of Doosan Corp. last week.

“Park Seo-won is quite ambitious. Since his father’s days, the founding Park family of Doosan has always shared power by rotating the chairmanship. Seo-won has definitely emerged as a dark horse from among the new generation in the family,” said a company insider who declined to be named.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)