New Top Manager for Kumho-Asiana

Chmn. Park assures business as usual for the group

Vice Chairman Park Chan-bup of Asiana Airlines was promoted to chairman of Kumho-Asiana Group on July 31, to take over from Chairman Park Sam-koo, who stepped aside to become honorary chairman.
During the inauguration ceremony for the fifth chairman, the first non-owner head of the group in 63 years, held at the Shinmoon-ro headquarters, said the corporate language is its performance record, in his acceptance speech following the takeover of the helm from his predecessor at the ceremony. "It is the most glorious honor in my life to be chairman of the group," the new chairman said. The chairman went on to say that a corporate failure to generate profit does not end as a misfortune for the company. A business firm should speak with its performance results and in order to bring that about, a new personnel management system geared to punish those who underperform and reward those who excel will be introduced, Park said. He said the group had to overcome various tough situations to get where it is today. Every time the group has faced difficulties, it returned to the founder's challenging and strong grip on its founding ideals to beat back the adverse conditions and survived, the new chairman recalled.
Park, 64, who spent most of his career with the group, said he will devote most of his time to solving the current problems that the group is faced with, including the restructuring of group affiliates in a speedy manner.
He said the sale of Daewoo Construction is progressing well and will soon be concluded. He denied the rumored break-up of the group by the members of the Park family who owns the group and also said the discharge of Kumho Petrochemical chairman Park Chan-koo was entirely done through appropriate legal procedures when asked to comment on the legal suit brought by the former chairman over his dismissal.Park also dismissed the personnel shake up within the group, now that he is the chairman, saying that confusion and misunderstanding have all been cleared up. The personnel shake up of CEOs is scheduled for Nov. 1 and for directors on Dec. 1.
He also said most of the group's operations would remain largely unchanged, denying rumors on business portfolio changes. He said in fact he will strengthen the core growth engines. He said he will see that restructuring that has been going on will be completed as soon as possible including the agreements on the group's financial structure.
The governance structure centered around Kumho Petrochemical is likely to remain unchanged, he said, adding that the group's strategy having the company to continue to be its holding company will be maintained.
He also denied that Kumho Petrochemical would take over additional stakes in other affiliates for the time being, adding that the dismissed former Kumho Petrochemical chairman would also removed as chairman of other group affiliates through appropriate legal procedures.
Park said he will look after the interests of shareholders of Kumho affiliates, adding that it is one of the heavy responsibilities of CEOs of affiliates to closely watch the share prices of their stocks and try to boost them by producing very good performance records of their companies the interests of shareholders.
The new chairman said he will try to wrap up the current problems of the group as early as possible to put the group's operations back on track, saying that former chairman Park Sam-koo issued a statement totally backing him up as his successor and wishing him good luck in his new job and he sees no problems in his management of the group as he has the support of the majority shareholders and the group as 20 affiliate CEOs attended the media conference following the inauguration ceremony led by President Oh Nam-soo of the group's Strategic Management Headquarters.
Some of the CEOs hurriedly returned from their overseas trips to attend the ceremony. The former chairman clearly drew the line between majority stake holders and the CEOs that CEOs will be in charge of running the group and its affiliates, while the agreements on financial reform will be taken care of by the former chairman until the very end, the new chairman said to express that its his sole responsibility to manage the group's day-to-day affairs.
The new chairman has his office on the 27th floor of the group's headquarters building in Shinmoon-ro and his chauffeur driven car has been changed to the Lexus from the Equus, the same as the one assigned to former chairman Park. nw

New Chairman Park Chan-bup of the Kumho-Asiana Group waves the group's flag during an inaugural ceremony held at the group's headquarter in downtown Seoul July 31.(right) Kumho-Asiana Group Chairman Park.