New CEO of Land Housing Corp.

Lee to reduce by 24 pct the number of employees at the new company by 2012 under reorganization plan

President Lee Ji-song of the Korea Land Housing Corp. said he will do his best to manage the new government corporation created out of the merger between the Korea Land Corp. and the Korea National Housing Corp., putting to good use his experiences as head of Hyundai Construction and as chancellor of Kyungbuk University in Daegu.
During a media interview he held jointly with Kwon Do-yon, first deputy minister of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Sept. 8, he said about 24 percent of the newly merged company’s employees will be reduced either through retirement or voluntary retirement step-by-step by 2012 and the payroll will be changed to an annual pay system for officers and staff of the company.
The CEO designate said he will try to make the company’s operation more effective by taking on only core businesses including the construction of houses for middle or lower income earners, setting up a land bank and reducing or totally doing away with other businesses such as the development of land for housing, the development of new cities, the development of urban areas, reconstruction, redevelopment and urban landscaping, to name a few.
He said he will also push the reorganization of the company including the reduction of business headquarters from 12 to six and the number of local branch offices from 24 to 13 through mergers or closures.
Lee said a special accounting task force will be set up directly under himself to push the financial reform of the company. The debt ratio of the company is projected to run up to 400 percent by 2014 if left alone, he said.
Recalling his days as CEO of Hyundai Construction from 2003 to 2006, he said the company had been able to get back on track very early despite the many negative perceptions of the company when it took a hard financial hit then. This was meant to convey that he will be able to solve many problems that the newly merged company will have, such as the elimination of units with overlapping functions, restructuring, relocation to a new location in a provincial city and recovering normal operations for the company.
When he took over as the CEO of Hyundai Construction, the company in deep financial trouble having just broken out of the financial crisis of 1998, he fell back on his past experiences with the company as head of the civil construction department, the domestic business headquarters and various onsite management positions at the company’s overseas jobsites, largely in the Middle East.
Under his leadership, Hyundai regained the lead in winning overseas construction projects and got back on a sound track, reemerging as the top company in the industry in the hands of his successors, Lee Jong-soo and Kim Joong-gyum.
His designation as head of the new company with total assets of 105 trillion won by the Presidential Office and Minister Chung Jong-hwan of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs is owed largely to his aggressive approach to projects of which he is in charge.
His experiences in both the construction and education areas are expected to go a long way toward helping him lead the new key state-owned company in charge of land and housing along the right course. He has been getting a lot of attention in the country, especially in the construction industry, for those reasons.
After serving in the army, he joined the Korea Water Resources Corp., and moved to Hyundai Construction before taking over as chancellor of a university during his 48-year long career.
A graduate of Hanyang University with a degree in civil engineering, Lee is from Boryung, South Chungcheong Province, and he worked closely with President Lee Myung-bak when he was with Hyundai Construction for over 15 years. When the President was Mayor of Seoul, Lee led Hyundai Construction to work on the reconstruction of Chonggye Stream that cuts across Seoul, earning him the nickname “MB’s Man” and winning the trust of Mayor Lee, who is now the Chief Executive.
Many in the construction industry and other related areas say Lee is the right man for the new job of shaping policies on real estate and housing construction because of his experience as a civil engineer and his penchant to aggressively push ahead the projects in his charge. nw

President Lee Ji-song of Korea Land Housing Corp.