KT has ushered in a new leadership era under CEO Park Yun-young (박윤영). With a company insider who has spent more than 30 years at the firm taking the top job, major changes are expected in both organisation and business strategy. After already carrying out a large-scale reorganisation, expectations are growing that KT will focus on strengthening business-to-business (B2B) operations based on artificial intelligence (AI).

On March 31, KT held its 44th annual general meeting and approved agenda items including the appointment of Park as CEO and the approval of internal directors. Park joined Korea Telecom, KT’s predecessor, in 1992 and has worked for about 30 years. He has served as president of the enterprise business division, head of the future business development group and head of the convergence research institute. He is assessed as having contributed, particularly while leading the enterprise business division, to expanding the company’s core growth axis to B2B.

◆ Executive reshuffle...first female vice president appointed

With the launch of Park’s leadership, KT carried out a sweeping executive reshuffle. The industry had earlier expected that Park, who has spent more than 30 years at the company and knows its organisation inside out, would carry out large-scale personnel moves to improve management efficiency.

KT was previously reported to have notified about 30 of roughly 90 executives at the managing director level and above of their retirement. More recently, CTO Oh Seung-pil (오승필), head of the technology innovation division at the vice president level, submitted his resignation. Earlier, in January, former Chief AI Officer Shin Dong-hoon (신동훈) moved to NC AI.

Less than 4 hours after the shareholder meeting ended, KT replaced all heads of departments directly under the CEO, firing the starting gun on a large-scale reshuffle. Kim Bong-gyun (김봉균), born in 1972 and CEO of KT Engineering, was promoted to vice president as head of the enterprise division to oversee B2B business. Ok Kyung-hwa (옥경화), head of the IT platform headquarters, was promoted to vice president as head of the IT division, becoming KT’s first female vice president, and is set to oversee the IT technology field.

KT appointed Vice President Park Hyun-jin (박현진) as head of the customer division. She is a B2C specialist who has served as head of major customer-division headquarters and led key group content affiliates, including as CEO of Millie’s Library. Park returned to KT after being promoted from executive director to vice president. Kim Young-in (김영인) was promoted from executive director to vice president and appointed as head of the network division.

There had been speculation that the appointment of an internally bred CEO would bring insider-focused appointments, but an assessment has emerged that KT balanced internal and external talent. Four vice presidents, including Park Hyun-jin, Kim Bong-gyun, Kim Young-in and Ok Kyung-hwa, were promoted internally. Song Jong-gyu (송종규), head of the legal office and vice president, Lee Sang-woon (이상운), head of the information security office and chief information security officer at executive director level, and Park Sang-won (박상원), head of the AX business division at executive director level, were hired from outside.

Organisational slimming is also a key keyword. KT expanded its seven regional headquarters into four zones — Seoul North, Seoul South, East and West — and placed them directly under related business divisions such as B2C, B2B and network. The aim is to improve alignment between headquarters and the field and simplify reporting lines. Seven customer headquarters that handled B2C business under the previous regional headquarters are to be incorporated into four headquarters under the customer division, while the corporate customer headquarters and the network operations headquarters will be incorporated into the enterprise division and the network division, respectively.

KT plans to reduce its executive-level organisation sharply to about 30 percent of the existing level to improve efficiency and strengthen business competitiveness. An official familiar with KT said, “There were many organisations with overlapping functions, and reporting lines also tended to be complex.” The official added, “Isn’t it aimed at speeding up communication?”

Another pillar of the reorganisation is dismantling the “total sales task force.” The task force is an organisation where staff who refused restructuring were placed during the tenure of then-CEO Kim Young-seob in 2024. About 2,300 task-force members are to be redeployed across the board to field sites that lack manpower.

A KT official said, “We expect that field support will be strengthened in areas that require close companywide communication, such as B2C, B2B and network, and that this will lead to tangible market results.”

◆ All-out efforts to recover from hacking incident...targeting the corporate market with B2B AX

KT is also stepping up efforts to deal with last year’s unauthorised micropayment incident that exploited illegal femtocells, or small base stations. The incident leaked information of 368 subscribers and caused financial damage worth 240 million won, leading to a large-scale outflow of subscribers. In a letter to employees sent immediately after his appointment, Park stressed, “Flawless information security is the reason KT exists,” and added, “I will not spare necessary investment without any compromise.”

In the B2B area, KT is putting forward a “B2B AX” strategy. KT, which has created a new “AX business division,” plans to target the corporate market with a business model responsible from consulting through operations. KT last month showcased the corporate AI operating system “Agentic Fabric” and the physical AI robot platform “K RaaS (KT Robot as a Service)” at MWC26, cementing its plan to target the B2B market.

In the B2C area, KT integrated its media division into its existing customer division. It aims to create synergy by linking wired and wireless communications with media.

Attention is also focused on whether new CEO Park can end the company’s repeated governance troubles. At the annual general meeting, shareholders continued to criticise governance risks, including controversy involving former outside director Cho Seung-a (조승아), who stepped down amid a dual-role dispute, and outside director Lee Seung-hoon (이승훈), who became embroiled in allegations of solicitation. Kim Mi-young (김미영), head of KT’s New Union, claimed in remarks on meeting procedures that “KT is facing a management crisis due to the board’s arbitrary decision-making” and that “the board has become the base of an interest cartel.”

KT appointed Park Hyun-jin, CEO of KT Millie’s Library, as an internal director at this shareholder meeting. It appointed Kim Young-han (김영한), a professor in the School of Electronic Information Engineering at Soongsil University, as an outside director in the future technology field; Kwon Myung-sook (권명숙), former head of Intel Korea, in the management field; and Seo Jin-seok (서진석), a non-executive adviser to OCI Holdings and Bukwang Pharmaceutical, in the accounting field. The outside director seat in the environment, social and governance (ESG) field remains vacant after Yoon Jong-soo (윤종수), an adviser at Kim & Chang, resigned for personal reasons, despite being the only outside director whose reappointment had been approved among those whose terms ended.

Park stressed that “people” are at the centre of all change. He defined the company’s core value as “KT professionalism” and said it would serve as the standard for all decision-making and actions.

He said, “Building ‘a solid essence,’ which is the core competitiveness of telecommunications, is the starting point for restoring customer trust and innovation.” He added, “We will build a virtuous cycle of ‘certain growth’ that maximises hyper-personalisation and industry-specific AX capabilities, and concentrate companywide capabilities so we can leap into South Korea’s No. 1 AX platform company.”