Vice Chairman Lee Hee-beom of LG International Co.

Lee Hee-beom, chairman of the Korea Employers’ Association and former Trade and Industry minister, has been named to take over LG International Co., an affiliate of LG Group, as vice chairman and CE0. He has been with the Biz Group since he left the STX Heavy Industries as chairman  with the company and other affiliates of STX Group got mired in financial problems.

 Over the phone since his appointment, he told a reporter that he always wanted to work for private firms when he resigned from the ministerial position a number of years ago. And he will do his best at the new job with LG Int’l has been engaged in the projects overseas exploring natural resources and recently formed a partnership with GS Energy to take over STX Energy. Lee also was chairman of STX Energy among the many hats he wore, which among them include chairman of Korea International Trade Association, and Korea Productivity Center Chairman and chairman of the Hyundai Motor Habichi Social Contribution Cultural Foundation, which later changed its name to the Chung Mong-koo Foundation after the chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.

 The former minister is also known for his broad overseas connections, especially, with those in the oil industry in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. He was able to renew his friendships with many of them at the Daegu International Energy Conference last month in Daegu.

Chairman Oh Young-ho of KOTRA, who worked with Lee at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, said he has many advantages. First, he is busy all the time with work taking care of every thing from minute detail to a big picture of a project on top of a strong push to achieve the projects that he is in charge. He also is at ease with any one around him with down-to-earth communication style, which is hard to emulate.

 In December, the selection of a site to build nuclear waste storage facilities has become a big problem with residents of many candidate sites weary of having the nuke waste storage facilities near their towns.

 The Roh government, then named Lee to head the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources to finalize the selection once and for all.

 He made sure that his selection as the minister was not wrong by finalizing the site for nuke waste storage facilities through the vote by residents of Gyeongju and the ancient city was chosen as the site in November, 2005, closing the long-dragged out problem at last.

 Those who worked with him or under him said he is not afraid of hurting himself to accomplish the work given to him.

 When breaking up Korea Electric Power Corp. in 2000, the union was strongly opposed to the government plan. Lee was head of the Office of Resources of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and Lee went to the place where the union was to hold a meeting, despite the danger that he might face and persuaded the key members of the union that splitting the KEPCO would do no harm to the union.

 Lee’s popularity in the business community when he was the minister was due to the fact that he often put himself in other people’s shoes and think what he would have done.

 Also, he sent emails later to answer  to the CEOs whose questions put at him at his meetings with the CEOs and that he could not respond at meetings.

 Lately LG International’s domestic rivals such as SK Networks and Daewoo International have not been doing well with SK Networks having decided to conduct restructuring of its operation as a result of its business slowdown, while Daewoo International has decided to sell its sewing plants in Busan, its mother company, as part of the measures to straighten out its financial problems.

 Now, LG International has decided to see how the former minister would do with its operation.