Doosan Eyes a 'Top-level Global Corp.'

Stresses responsible, board of directors management in his inaugural speech

New Doosan Group Chairman Y.H. Park emphasized that Doosan Corp. will develop global competitiveness and financial soundness so that the company's next 100 years will see it grow into one of the top-level global corporations.
He delivered the message at his inaugural ceremony on March 30 at DLI Yonkangwon, the company's leadership institute located in Gil-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, with 200 inside and outside directors, executives and employees participating. Chairman Park said, "Doosan has a proud history of 113 years, which is the longest among all Korean companies. Let's write its history of another 100 years as one of the top-level global corporations." In an effort to accomplish this vision, the chairman unveiled his managerial directives: Maximize corporate value and board-oriented management; build corporate management methods and management infrastructure that befits global standards; establish and proliferate the "Doosan Way" and reinforce social contribution activities.
Doosan plans to improve its control structure in order to advance the function of the board of directors and facilitate responsible management by the CEO and other senior executives. In addition, Doosan will focus its efforts on building the three bases of globalization, including Global Talents, Global Core Technologies, and Global Management Systems, to make the leap into the ranks of top-level global corporations.
Chairman Y. H. Park took time to remark that, "The expectation is higher than ever for companies to be responsible members of society, and a truly global corporation must embrace this trend proactively." He went on to stress, "Contributory social activities that befit a Global Doosan must be reinforced for the sake of the firm's sustainable management." He was appointed Doosan Corporation's Chairman of the Board and Representative Director in a general meeting of shareholders and a meeting of directors on March 27.
The following are excerpts of the speech he gave at his inauguration.
Our Doosan is one of Korea's oldest corporations boasting a 113-year history.
With the goal of making Doosan a world-class corporation, we've been galloping without a hitch in the past few years. We've established a foundation for ensuring its continuous growth by accomplishing remarkable achievements in the group's core engine, infrastructure support business (ISB).
By building business portfolios and speedy decision-making management through M&As, we're making the utmost in constructing a second Doosan and a third Dossan in several parts of the globe. We're working toward a full-fledged world-class corporation with a global top-notch competitive edge and technological prowess. Now we believe we have the confidence and the potential.
However, the business environment surrounding us is never favorable. There are mounting fears that the global economic recession, equivalent to the Great Depression, will last for the time being, and we are not an exception.
As if the leaves of pine trees look greener in the cold winter season, a genuinely strong corporation will have to translate a crisis into opportunities. When the current economic crisis is over, new opportunities will follow, but we have to do away with vague expectations and an easy-going attitude.
Doosan's business turnaround following the Asian financial crisis was owed to the group's efforts and massive restructuring. Of course, the situation at that time is different from the case of today. At this juncture, we have to build a foundation to write another 100-year history by securing our competitive edge and establishing a financially sound system.
Let me share our corporate goals with our executives and staff members and disclose a few management policies.
First, we'll strive to maximize our corporate value and make management by the board of directors.
Secondly, we'll make the utmost to build management methods befitting global standards and global management infrastructure.
Thirdly, we'll try to establish and spread the "Doosan Way." The "Doosan Way," being developed to evolve into a global corporation with suggestions by Korean and foreign experts, is the corporation's management philosophy, business style and core value. Doosan needs to maintain and develop its unified identity in order to become a full-fledged world-class corporation. As the Doosan Group, which depends on the overseas business sector for 60 percent of its business portfolio and foreigners for 40 percent of its staff, sees itself going more global, Doosan needs to share and establish core values. Subsidiaries that produce products and export them can manage them the Korean way, but others that acquire foreign companies and are engaged in local production and marketing need to do away with the Korean way.
Fourthly, Doosan will systemize and strengthen social contribution activities.

Doosan Launches Holding Company System
Doosan Corp. (www.doosan.com) held its 72nd general shareholders meeting and board of directors meeting on March 27 and appointed Y.H. Park, 66, former chairman of Doosan Engineering & Construction, as chairman of the board. Y.H. Park is now in charge of the management of the whole group as the chairman of the holding company, Doosan Corp.
Doosan Corp. also appointed Yongmaan Park as the new CEO of Doosan Infracore. As the CEO of the holding company, Yongmaan Park assists Y.H. Park in group management.
Y.H. Park graduated from Gyeonggi High School and Seoul National University College of Medicine, and served as a professor of medicine at Seoul National University and was the 11th and 12th director of Seoul National University Hospital. While serving as the director of the hospital, he led reform efforts to change the authoritarian and bureaucratic system and turned the hospital into a patient-oriented organization.
In 2006, Y.H. Park left Seoul National University three years ahead of his retirement in order to provide more opportunities for his successors. Since then, he's been serving as the chief director of Yonkang Foundation and chairman of Doosan Engineering & Construction. He has also been participating in the management of Doosan Group by helping Chairman Y.S. Park in a number of important matters such as M&As.
The shareholders' meeting served as a turning point at which Doosan Corp. became a business holding company by meeting the requirements of a holding company such as holding a stock value of over 50 percent for subsidiaries in terms of assets. Doosan became a holding company as it promised three years ago, and it plans to concentrate on core businesses and increase the corporate value based on a transparent governance structure.
Meanwhile, Doosan Engineering & Construction held a board of directors meeting on the same day and appointed former CEO and vice chairman Park Jeong-won as the new CEO and chairman.

Doosan Foundation Donates $75,000 for Cancer Research
Doosan Group's Yonkang Foundation donated 100 million won ($75,000) to Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital to support its cancer research on March 31. The research grant will be used for conducting three research projects, including the "development of a blood-based diagnostic method for solid organic cancer using a DNA methylation marker," led by Prof. Kyung-hun Kang at the department of surgery at the hospital.
Chairman Park said, "As the number of patients who suffer from cancer continues to increase, the promotion of cancer research has become an urgent task," adding, "Doosan Group's Yongkang Foundation will take the lead in the efforts for treatment and prevention of cancer by providing research grants on the long-term basis, rather than short-term support." Yonkang Foundation began the project to support cancer research at SNU Hospital in 2006. The foundation selects three projects among basic research plans, which can be applied to treatment and clinical medicine, and donates 100 million won ($75,000) per year to grant an aggregate total of 1 billion won ($750,000) through 2015. Doosan Group's Yonkang Foundation, dedicated to scholarship programs and academic assistance, has been providing scholarships, academic and cultural promotion programs since its inception in 1978. nw

New Doosan Group Chairman Y.H. Park

(left) Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Chairman Y.S. Park and Doosan Infracore Chairman Yongmaan Park