POSCO Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi gives a greeting at the regular shareholders’ meeting held at the POSCO Center in Daechi-dong, Seoul on the 12th. Chairman Choi said, “I will focus on strengthening future growth engines.” Provided by POSCO
POSCO Chairman Choi Jung-woo succeeded in reappointing. Despite external pressure from politics and civic groups, shareholders’ overwhelming support was gained at the general shareholders’ meeting. ‘Choi Jeong-Woo 2nd’ is to strengthen new growth engines such as battery materials and hydrogen business, with’innovation and growth’ as the keyword. With safety as a top priority, we plan to focus on creating a’disaster-free workplace’.
Reinforcing safety is a top priority
On the 12th, POSCO held the 53rd regular shareholders’ meeting at the POSCO Center in Daechi-dong, Seoul, and passed the reappointment of Chairman Choi. It is known that more than 90% of the sovereignty (75.1%) who attended the reappointment of President Choi agreed. With this, Chairman Choi became the seventh chairman of POSCO to succeed in reappointing, and he will lead the group until March 2024.
In his greeting, Chairman Choi said, “We will focus on preoccupying the demands of future growth markets such as eco-friendly automobiles and steel materials. “We will leap to the global top tier (first-class company) through internalization of raw materials such as lithium and nickel and strengthening production capacity.”
Chairman Choi took over the baton of former chairman Kwon Oh-joon who left the office and took office in July 2018. He is the first Chief Financial Officer (CEO) in POSCO’s history for 50 years. It was evaluated as overcoming the Corona 19 crisis last year with a preemptive cash flow-oriented management. With the aim of becoming a ‘100-year company beyond steel,’ it has also focused on discovering future foods.
The steel-oriented group business structure was diversified into electric vehicle battery materials and LNG. In addition, POSCO actively implemented the management philosophy of developing into a’corporate citizen’ pursuing the value of coexistence and coexistence as well as economic profits as a member of society.
However, during his tenure, safety accidents occurred in the POSCO workplace, and he received strong criticism from politicians and civic groups. Chairman Choi is expected to put workplace safety as a top priority as he begins the second phase of the system.
“Achieving carbon neutrality by realizing hydrogen reduction steelmaking”
Chairman Choi also advocated strengthening ESG (environmental, social, governance) management. Chairman Choi said, “ESG management has now become an irreversible trend,” and “as declared’carbon neutral in 2050′ last December, we achieved carbon neutrality by realizing hydrogen reduction steel in the long run. I will try to develop low-carbon products.” He added, “I will further develop a transparent and sound governance structure to fulfill the corporate citizenship management philosophy, and to fulfill the expectations of shareholders by solidifying the foundation for a 100-year company, POSCO.” On this day, POSCO also passed a proposal to change the articles of incorporation to establish the ESG committee within the board of directors.
Normalization of earnings is also a task to be solved. In the aftermath of Corona 19, POSCO’s operating profit (2.3 trillion won) last year decreased by 37.9% compared to the previous year. Chairman Choi said, “It is expected that the global economy will show a modest recovery this year, but uncertainties remain.”
At the shareholders’ meeting on that day, six agendas were proposed, including approval of the financial statements, amendment of the articles of incorporation, the appointment of an inside director, and the appointment of an outside director, and were passed as the original plan. Jung Chang-hwa, head of the management support division (Vice President), was appointed as the new executive director. Kim Hak-dong, head of the global infrastructure division, Jeon Joong-seon, and head of the marketing division, Jeong Tak, were reappointed as internal directors.
Young-sook Yoo, senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and Tae-gyun Kwon, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, were appointed as the new outside directors. Director Yoo is POSCO’s first female outside director. Former Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kim Seong-jin, re-elected as an outside director, serves as an audit committee member.
Reporter Mansoo Choi [email protected]