Chairman Choi Jeong-woo of POSCO. (Photo: POSCO)

South Korea’s largest steelmaker, Posco, announced June 23 that it has named Choi Jeong-woo, CEO of Posco Chemtech, as its new chairman.
The company’s board of directors on June 23 voted to nominate Choi for the chairman post at next month’s extraordinary shareholder meeting, according to Posco.
As a result, Choi is set to assume his new post after the special meeting and board approval on July 27.
The Posco Chemtech CEO had been one of five final candidates nominated for the chairmanship. The list had included Choi as well as Posco Daewoo CEO Kim Young-sang, former Posco Chief Operating Officer Kim Jin-il, incumbent President and COO Oh In-hwan and Vice President Chang In-hwa.
Born in 1957, Choi graduated with a degree in economics from Pusan National University and joined Posco in 1983. He has worked at Posco and its key affiliates, in areas including finance strategy planning and corporate strategy development.
He was named the head of the Posco Value Management Office, the company’s de-facto control tower, in 2015, and is said to have been a key figure who spearheaded the company’s restructuring procedures.
“It’s the first time in Posco’s 50-year history that a CEO of a non-engineering background has been nominated. With his expertise in business management and experiences working for non-steel group affiliates, we believe Choi will play a major role in helping Posco fulfill its vision of ‘steel and beyond,’” the leadership succession counsel said in a statement.
Choi will be succeeding incumbent Posco Chairman Kwon Oh-joon, who offered to step down in April to give way to a next-generation leader. His move triggered the start of a five-member leadership succession counsel.
Since last year, rumors have been mounting within the industry that Kwon may follow in the footsteps of his predecessors who had failed to serve out their given terms.
Though Kwon was in his second three-year term, he faced growing pressure to step down after being excluded from President Moon Jae-in’s trip to the United States and other key agendas.
Posco was a state-run company before being fully privatized in 2000.
POSCO has created greatness from nothing through its challenging spirit and power to take action over the past 50 years, while leading Korea's steel industry to this day.
However, POSCO is not ceasing to go to beyond. POSCO declared a new grand vision called 'POSCO the Great' including a strong will for future growth. POSCO will evolve into a company that is respected by all citizen of the world by promoting new growth engines based on permanent new material, steel and an ongoing commitment to upholding new values. Under the vision of 'POSCO the Great', POSCO will move ahead to contribute to the coexistence and prosperity of human society by creating value beyond mere profits based on exemplary products and service, and heightened communication between corporate citizenship and shareholders.
POSCO became the first steel maker in the world to be selected as a company recognized for its excellence in sustainability for 13 consecutive years by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), a global sustainability benchmark, which was announced on Sept. 7.
DJSI are indices jointly developed by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a provider of financial information in the United States, and RobecoSAM, a Swiss firm specializing in assessing global sustainable management. They are recognized as the world's most authoritative sustainability indices.
This year in the steel sector, POSCO was selected as an outstanding company in the global sustainable management indices (DJSI World) from among 23 companies. As a result, POSCO was selected as an outstanding company in sustainability management for 13 years in a row, and earned the glowing reputation of becoming listed on DJSI for the longest time among domestic companies.