The Korea CPO Forum said on Tuesday it held a general meeting and appointed Huh Sung-wook (허성욱), former head of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, as its new chair.

Huh has held key posts at the former Ministry of Information and Communication and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. He also served as a senior administrative officer at the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser in the presidential secretariat and as head of the Network Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT. He later led policy execution and industry support for digital transformation and the promotion of the data industry as head of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA).

The outgoing chair, Professor Jung Tae-myung (정태명) of Sungkyunkwan University, has led the forum for 19 years since its founding. He has focused on steadily strengthening its organisational foundation and systematising an information exchange system among member companies.

In his inaugural remarks, Huh said, “Privacy protection is now facing a difficult transition period in which systems and the environment are changing at the same time.” He said, “As related laws and systems are reorganised and rapid changes in the technology environment overlap, the burden and confusion at industrial sites are also growing.” He stressed, “At times like this, rather than talking about a quantitative leap, the forum should strengthen a cooperative foundation for sharing experiences and concerns among member companies and play a role in solving on-the-ground difficulties together.”

The Korea CPO Forum plans to move beyond a passive role centred on conveying policy. It aims to strengthen practical response capabilities in the field by analysing key issues by industry, sharing response guidelines based on cases and advancing a collective learning system. It plans to establish an execution-focused cooperation model by jointly preparing a response framework for common risks.