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[이데일리 경계영 기자] Jeongwoo Choi(Photo) The POSCO chairman leads the POSCO Group for three more years. The reappointment was confirmed at the general shareholders’ meeting and the board of directors held on the 12th. POSCO, who enters the second phase, is expected to accelerate innovation and growth, focusing on green and mobility.
Chairman Jeongwoo Choi, success in reappointment… ESG Committee also established
On the morning of that day, the 53rd regular shareholders’ meeting was held at the POSCO Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, both online and offline, and passed six agendas, including the appointment of internal and external directors including Chairman Choi and the audit committee, amendment of the articles of incorporation, and approval of the remuneration limit for directors.
As a result, since July 2018, Chairman Jeong-woo Choi, who has been the CEO of POSCO, has been reappointed this time, extending his term of office for three years.
In a speech at the shareholders’ meeting on the day, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi emphasized, “We will focus on recovering steel profitability this year, while strengthening growth businesses such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), food, and secondary battery (battery) materials, and discovering opportunities for hydrogen business.”
Earlier, Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi was recommended as the sole candidate for the next CEO at the POSCO Board of Directors in December last year. At the time, the board of directors said to Chairman Choi, “We positively evaluate the management performances, such as organizational culture and personnel innovation, restructuring insolvent businesses, discovery of new businesses, and transition to a balanced group growth system as POSCO chairman over the past three years.” In a rapidly changing business environment, it recommended a consecutive appointment so that the company’s long-term value could be improved and the group’s competitiveness could be enhanced.
At the shareholders’ meeting, a new appointment was passed to re-appoint the head of the steel division (President) Kim Hak-dong (president), the global infrastructure division head (Vice President) Jeon Joong-seon, and the head of the marketing division (Vice President) Jeong Tak (Vice President) along with Chairman Choi as internal directors. As outside directors, Young-sook Yoo, Senior Researcher at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Tae-gyun Kwon, former ambassador of the UAE Embassy, and Seong-jin Kim, an adjunct professor at Seoul National University, were appointed as audit committee members.
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At the board of directors held immediately after the shareholders’ meeting, an outside director, Professor Seung-Hwa Jang of Seoul National University Law School, was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors, and President Hak-dong Kim and Vice-President Jeon Joong-seon were appointed as CEOs.
In addition, the ESG Committee under the Board of Directors, which was officially launched at this shareholders meeting, reviews low-carbon policies related to climate change and plans such as safety and health, and monitors implementation matters. By establishing the ESG Committee this time, POSCO plans to further strengthen its social responsibility as a corporate citizen. Outside director Kim Shin-bae was elected as the chairman of the ESG chairman.
Safety organization system expansion and reorganization… “Best for realizing an accident-free workplace”
On this day, POSCO expanded and reorganized the organizational system in the safety sector to prevent serious accidents from occurring and significantly strengthen safety management, and performed related executives. Chairman Jeong-woo Choi also mentioned that “I will do my best to realize an accident-free workplace.”
The’Safety and Environment Headquarters’ was newly established under the direct control of the CEO and CEO (Head of Steel Division), and Si-Woo Lee, Head of Production Technology Headquarters, was appointed as the head of the headquarters. Siwoo Lee is a field expert who served as the head of the production technology headquarters after serving as the head of POSCO-Maharashtra (India), the head of the Gwangyang rolling department, the head of the steel production strategy department, and the head of the Gwangyang Steel Works. I plan to focus on it.
Along with this, it was decided to expand and reorganize the related organization to have two specialized organizational units under its subsidiary. The Safety and Health Planning Office is in charge of innovation in the safety and health system and system at the group level, centering on Pohang and Gwangyang Steelworks, and the Environmental Planning Office plans to lead the group’s mid- to long-term environmental strategies such as carbon neutrality and step-by-step implementation.
In addition, POSCO has also reinforced the on-site safety and environment organization system to focus only on safety and environment by transferring the energy and power generation business under its subsidiary to other departments so that the deputy manager in charge of safety and environment at the steel mill can manage the site more intensively.
Resilience to new businesses such as hydrogen and battery materials
It is expected to expand investment, focusing on key growth businesses such as LNG, food, and battery materials, and to receive more momentum in new businesses including hydrogen.
In particular, it is expected that hydrogen will be intensively fostered as the next growth engine in the second term of Chairman Choi. In December of last year, POSCO announced its entry into the hydrogen business. The idea is to increase hydrogen production capacity by researching the hydrogen reduction steelmaking method, which is a steel production technology using hydrogen, developing steel materials necessary for producing, transporting, storing, and utilizing hydrogen, and increasing by-product hydrogen production facilities. In this regard, the Industrial Gas and Hydrogen business department directly under the CEO was established.
Regarding the battery material business, Chairman Choi said at the shareholders’ meeting, “By establishing a collective supply system that leads to positive and negative electrode materials in supply and demand for core raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and graphite, we secure differentiated competitiveness and invest in positive and negative electrode materials facilities in a timely manner in 2030. Until now, 400,000 tons of cathode materials and 260,000 tons of anode materials will grow into the top tier, occupying 20% of the global secondary battery material market.”
In the recent reorganization, the energy materials headquarters in charge of battery materials was expanded and reorganized to the energy materials division.
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