President & CEO Moon Dong-joon of Kumho Petrochemical. / Kim Sun-kyu, head of the management division of Kumho Petrochemical. / President Shin Woo-sung of Kumho B&P Chemical.

Former President Moon Dong-joon of Kumho P&B Chemicals has been appointed president & CEO of Kumho Petrochemical, while ex-Senior Executive Vice President Kim Sun-kyu of POSCO Daewoo has been named to head the management division of Kumho Petrochemical.

New Kumho Petrochemical President Moon, born in 1954, graduated from Hwimoon High School, Korea University Agro-economics Department. He had stints as in the chairman’s office, planning, and overseas business departments after entering Kumho Petrochemical in 1979.

He also served as an executive with Kumho Mitsui Petrochemical and Kumho P&B Chemicals between 2002 and 2010 before he was promoted to president & CEO of Kumho P&B Chemicals and served the job until this past March.

He is concurrently chairman of the Korea Petrochemical Industry Association.

New Management Division Chief Kim, born in 1957, graduated from Daejeon High School and Sogang University Trade Department. He had been with crude oil and petrochemical product divisions of Daewoo Corp. in which he entered in 1982.

He served as chief of the goods and petrochemical division at POSCO Daewoo, the predecessor of POSCO International between 2017 and early 2019. Kim was the second executive of Kumho Petrochemical Group to hail from the outside of the group.

Kumho Petrochemical said through the reshuffle of executives, the company is at a watershed moment to ramp up external and internal innovations and fundamentals, and the company plans to maintain a competitive edge of mainstay products and continue to improve business performances this year under the new leadership.

Chmn. Park’s Globalization Strategy

Former CEO Shin Woo-sung of BASF Korea has been appointed to be president of Kumho B&P Chemical, a subsidiary of Kumho Petrochemical Group.

It is the first time the group has hired an outside CEO. The appointment may be construed as Kumho Petrochemical Group Chairman Park Chan-koo’s move to inject a globalization and innovation DNA into the chemical company with a conventional “pure-blooded” tendency.

Chairman Park, in the ninth year of split from Kumho Asiana Group, is spearheading innovation with the goal of making the group a global chemical leader.

Starting with the appointment of a new Kumho P&B Chemicals, the chemical company plans to expand partnerships with global chemical companies and realign its product portfolio suiting consumers’ trends.

A view of Kumho Petrochemcal’s 1st Yeosu plant. (Photos: Kumho Petrochemical)