Ryu Jae-cheol (류재철), CEO of LG Electronics, has moved directly to secure overseas R&D talent. LG Electronics said on Aug. 31 it held the North America Tech Conference, an event inviting overseas talent, in San Francisco on Aug. 29 local time, hosted by Ryu.

The event ran as a recruitment-linked program to introduce LG Electronics' vision and technological competitiveness for future businesses it is pursuing to local experienced R&D professionals and PhD-level specialists. About 100 people attended, including PhDs and researchers from major U.S. universities and research institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as experienced R&D professionals working at local big tech firms and startups.

LG Electronics participants included Ryu, Chief Technology Officer Kim Byung-hoon (김병훈), Chief Human Resources Officer Song Sang-ho (송상호), Jung Ki-hyun (정기현), head of the HS Platform Business Center, Oh Se-gi (오세기), head of the ES Research Center, Lee Sang-yong (이상용), head of the VS Research Center, Kim Young-joon (김영준), head of the AI Research Center, Kim Dong-wook (김동욱), head of the SW Center, Song Si-yong (송시용), head of the Robotics Business Center, Park Ki-beom (박기범), head of LG Data Factory, and Baek Seung-min (백승민), head of the Advanced Robotics Research Center, among other key business and technology leaders.

Ryu introduced his career path, starting as an engineer after majoring in mechanical engineering and rising to CEO after serving as a business division head and business unit head. Ryu stressed, "LG Electronics is a company where talent with technical expertise can grow into key leaders who drive the company's future."

LG Electronics is fostering robotics, combining robot platforms, robot intelligence and data capabilities, an AI data center cooling solutions business and a mobility business that builds an in-vehicle intelligent platform based on AIDV and SDV as key pillars of future growth based on physical AI.

It also cited as data strengths its manufacturing and production data and know-how accumulated over decades, and understanding of home spaces and customers through hundreds of millions of products worldwide. It also presented as strengths technological leadership in HVAC and vehicle components businesses and manufacturing capability for more than 1 billion cumulative units of core components.

Ryu said, "I talked about future technologies including AI, robotics and mobility, but in the end what changes the future is talent." He said, "LG Electronics will create meaningful change in the world together with talent that is not afraid of bigger challenges."

LG Electronics will sequentially visit major North American universities starting on Aug. 9, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Michigan, Purdue University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to hold recruitment briefings. In South Korea, it has been conducting recruitment for entry-level hires for the second half since last month in fields including robotics, production technology and electrical and electronics.