KT's Board Overhaul: Genuine Change or Mere Facade?

[Korea Financial Times, Jeong Chaeyun] KT has unveiled a board reform plan promising to restore trust, but internal backlash is mounting over what critics call a "hollow makeover." With approximately one month remaining until CEO-designate Park Yoon-young's inauguration, concerns are growing that KT's future strategy has come to a complete halt as the power imbalance with current management remains unresolved.

Board reform announced... "commitment to restore trust" emphasized, but...

Ahead of its upcoming general shareholders' meeting, KT's board of directors recently disclosed its outside director candidate nominations and governance reform directions. The core elements of this reform plan include: ▲confirmation of three new outside director candidates ▲introduction of an outside director evaluation system ▲improvement of board operations through enhanced expertise and diversity.

The three confirmed outside director candidates are: Yoon Jong-soo (current chairman of KT's ESG Committee, environmental advisor at Kim & Chang law firm) for ESG; Kim Young-han (current professor in the School of Electronic Engineering at Soongsil University) for future technology; and Kwon Myung-sook (former CEO of Intel Korea) for management. The accounting position will remain vacant and be filled at next year's regular shareholders' meeting.

Through these measures, KT expressed its commitment to recovering the trust damaged by last year's customer information breach and the confusion surrounding the CEO appointment process. The company also decided to transition from the previous concentrated structure of replacing four directors at once to a more stable distributed replacement structure.

A KT official explained, "The board's monitoring and checks-and-balances function is core to corporate trust," adding, "We will reorganize our transparent and sustainable management system centered on the ESG Committee." The candidate pool reportedly includes women executives and technology experts.

However, reactions from inside and outside the company immediately following the announcement were mixed. KT's New Union issued a "Statement on KT's Outside Director Appointment and Reform Plan," strongly objecting that it was "reform in name only, with entrenched personnel problems remaining."

The New Union took issue with the reappointment of current ESG Committee Chairman and outside director Yoon Jong-soo, arguing, "Putting forward again as a candidate someone who bears responsibility for undermining social trust through alleged cover-up during the massive hacking incident is an act that deceives shareholders and the public."

The New Union also criticized that while this board reform touted diversity, it has not actually escaped the structure of a "rubber-stamp board" centered on professors and bureaucrats. They stated that it is difficult to expect substantial progress in internal checks and transparent management as no personnel representing consumers, civil society, or internal constituents were included.

Prior to this, KT's primary union also issued a statement urging, "The board has shown inappropriate behavior focused solely on pursuing private interests rather than serving as a decision-making body involved in KT's business execution," demanding that "KT's board operation methods be completely reformed and all current directors resign."

Too many captains have stopped the ship... Q1 business rhythm "flatlined"

KT is currently in a transitional period where CEO Kim Young-seob and CEO-designate Park Yoon-young coexist. Although Park Yoon-young was confirmed as the next CEO candidate at the end of last year, his official inauguration is scheduled for after the shareholders' meeting in March. During this period, CEO Kim Young-seob maintains personnel authority, resulting in organizational restructuring and executive appointments being delayed by approximately 1-2 months compared to competitors SK Telecom and LG Uplus.

An industry source said, "Unless CEO Kim Young-seob completely relinquishes personnel authority before his term ends, preparation work for the Park Yoon-young regime is effectively at a standstill," adding, "If the organizational and personnel vacuum is prolonged, both new business promotion speed and internal decision-making capacity could drop sharply."

The industry analysis is that while Park Yoon-young's vision-based personnel changes were initially discussed for January, coordination delays have continuously pushed back department head appointments, causing disruptions to Q1 business schedules.

Particularly as competitors stake everything on growth engines such as AI, digital platforms, and cloud services, there is a growing sense of crisis internally at KT that core investment decisions are being delayed amid leadership uncertainty.

As the Q1 business rhythm itself has been severed, financial burdens are also rapidly increasing. Following the hacking incident, over 300,000 customers left after penalty waiver measures, and while the company should be focusing all efforts on marketing and strategic decisions to restore trust, even core movements are being delayed due to the leadership vacuum.

In this situation, criticism is also being raised that as KT's board has been hampered by conflicts over personnel authority, this board reform announcement has merely served as a gesture focused on short-term risk mitigation rather than genuine management reform.

Reform rhetoric without substantive structural change... execution will be the watershed

Amid internal confusion, the success or failure of KT's board reform is expected to be revealed through its connection with the Park Yoon-young regime. With major shareholders including the National Pension Service closely monitoring the governance reform process through changes in holding purposes, additional pressure is likely if there is no substantial change after the shareholders' meeting.

The management leadership vacuum is already translating into a gap with competitors. SK Telecom has materialized its AI company transformation roadmap, while LG Uplus is accelerating its "beyond telecom" strategy through subscription and content ecosystem expansion and startup partnerships.

In contrast, KT's CEO Kim Young-seob regime, which had put forward a "digital platform company" blueprint, has effectively come to a standstill, and the strategic transition to the next Park Yoon-young regime remains unclear.


A securities industry source analyzed, "KT has repeatedly experienced CEO reappointment and replacement controversies during every regime change since privatization," adding, "Securing governance independence is a key task for resolving stock valuation issues."

The industry is unanimous that redefining authority among the board, management, and organization is essential. They point out that KT will find it difficult to escape governance risks unless substantial role-sharing is achieved beyond simple personnel changes.

An industry source said, "If governance confusion is not resolved, negative signals will continue on all fronts—not just personnel and organizational issues, but also external creditworthiness, partnerships, and investment attraction," adding, "Particularly in sensitive matters such as government public network projects and cloud service contracts, trustworthiness becomes substantive competitiveness."

Jeong Chaeyun (chaeyun@fntimes.com)