President Hur Sae-hong of GS Caltex Corp., 2nd L, is seen on a recent tour of a jobsite of the oil company.

President Hur Sae-hong of GS Caltex traveled to the oil refinery’s research institute and the Yeosu Oil Refinery for the first time since taking over the oil refinery’s top office on Jan. 2, a natural move for the new CEO of the nation’s 2nd largest oil refinery as he always believed that answers to company problems are found in jobsites.

On Jan. 10, Hur embarked on an official tour with a visit to the research facility in Daejeon. He talked with key people in the institute over lunch before touring the facility.

He told them to do their best to make the MFC Project, an olefin production project, a great success in line with the oil company’s key strategy to “strengthen the company’s operational competitive power and the development of new portfolios.”

He told them “We want you to do your best to boost the qualitative growth the company by securing key technologies in Chemical and materials, both high value added industries and new growth engines thru deep research to give us the core competitive power that is cut out for us only.”

The CEO went on to say that in the center of achieving the foundation for management is people, and success is only possible through wide communication.

President Hur was scheduled to visit the Yeosu Refinery on Jan. 11 and tour the site where the olefin production facility (MFC) is to be built. He urged everyone to do his or her best to make the project a success and most of all, boost safety at the construction site.

The new CEO was also scheduled to travel to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the Davos World Economic Forum Jan. 22-25 to learn about the status of the global economy this year and get help to develop a new business plan from world scholars.

GS Caltex plans to introduce new services at the service stations some time in the second half of this year, calling them, “Energy-Mobility multiplex Station” adding such new services as charging electric batteries, electric car sharing, maintenance services for electric cars, and other services the company will launch, aimed at strengthening its position as the Mobility Infra Service Provider.

LG Electronics is ready to install a 350 km class multi battery charger at the multiplex service stations, which be later handled by robots and wireless battery charging system.

GS Caltex Corporation is a joint venture between GS Group in the Republic of Korea and Chevron in the US. The company is the fourth largest single-site refinery and petroChemical complex in the world with 800,000 barrels a day refining capacity. Previously, Hur was President & CEO of GS Global Corp., a general trading affiliate of GS Group.

Prior to joining GS Caltex, he worked at Chevron and IBM (Global Services) in the US, Banker Trust International in Korea and the Osaki Electric in Japan. In 2007, he was selected as a private sector leader for the Future Leaders Forum: Korea-China-Japan. In 2010, he was awarded the Industrial Service Medal from the Government of Korea.

Hur earned a BSc from Yonsei University in Korea (1992) and received an MBA from Stanford University in the U.S. (1998).

A view of the Energy Mobility Multiplex Service Station, a service station with a variety of added services including battery chargers to be ready for a big boost in the number of electric cars on the streets around the nation in the near future in cooperation with LG Electronics. (Photos: GS Caltex)