POSCO Nominates Candidates for Outside and Internal Directors

At POSCO’s board meeting on February 20, the company nominated three candidates as its new directors: Seoul National University professor (Department of Mechanical Engineering) Heui-Jae Pahk as outside director, and the company’s Senior Executive Vice Presidents Hag-Dong Kim and Tak Jeong as internal directors.

The Board also recommended extending the outside directorship of former SK Group Vice Chairman Shin-Bae Kim and Sungkyunkwan University professor Moon-Ki Chung. As for the internal directors, President of POSCO In-Hwa Chang and POSCO’s Senior Executive Vice President Jung-Son Chon received nominations for the extension of their tenure.

Both outside and internal directors underwent rigorous preliminary background checks and confirmed their candidacy via the approval of the steering committee and the Board. The nominees will be sworn in at the upcoming Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on March 15.

The new outside director nominee Heui-Jae Pahk founded the first venture company of Seoul National University while holding his professorship there. He also served as the R&D Strategy Planning Director at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy as well as the President of the Korea Youth Foundation . Currently, he is the professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Seoul National University.

Hag-Dong Kim, the new internal director nominee, was elected as POSCO’s Head of Production Division last month. Just before this appointment, he was the Head of Gwangyang Works. His previous career path at the POSCO Group include Deputy General Superintendent of Iron and Steel Making Division at Gwangyang Works, the Chief Executive Officer at the SNNC (a joint venture between POSCO and SMSP, New Caledonia’s largest nickel exporter), and the Head of Pohang Works.

The internal director nominee Tak Jeong started his career at Daewoo Group heading the company’s Kuala Lumpur Office. He also led Daewoo’s Steel Business Division. With the POSCO Group, he was the Head of the Energy and Shipbuilding Materials Marketing Office as well as the Steel Business Strategy Office. The internal director nominee Tak Jeong is currently leading POSCO’s Marketing Division since his appointment as the Head of Steel Business Division.

POSCO expects the new directors and their diverse expertise to add to the company’s sustainable growth and will reinvigorate on-site management of both production and marketing departments. The new directors are also likely to help boost academic-industrial collaboration and secure new growth engines for the company.

POSCO further announced that it would introduce electronic voting system ahead of the enactment of the revised commercial law.

The e-voting system enables the shareholders to register their proposals in an electronic voting system. It allows shareholders to exercise their voting rights online without their physical presence at the shareholders’ meeting. The new system seeks to provide convenience for the shareholders as they exercise their due voting rights.

Minor shareholder protection measures such as cumulative voting and quarterly dividends are already in place at POSCO in the company’s dedication to enhance shareholder value. To encourage and help establish the new electronic voting system, POSCO will provide detailed guidelines on the voting procedure through its homepage and the notice of convocation for the shareholders. The e-voting system will be implemented from the upcoming AGM on March.