Korea's Hyundai Mobis CEO Cho elected ISO president

South Korean auto parts maker Hyundai Mobis Co.’s CEO Cho Sung-hwan has been elected as the next president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) at the annual ISO General Assembly meeting in Abu Dhabi, Korean trade ministry announced on Sept. 22.

Cho beat out his rival Decheung Wang, chairman and secretary of the party committee of the China Academy of Machinery Science and Technology Group, in the election held earlier this week.

Cho said on Friday he will actively support developing countries to introduce more global standards within their industries. 

"For the past 30 years, I've seen that the leading countries in terms of standards are frontrunners in global technologies and vice versa. In Korea, many industry experts prefer independent research to standardization. I will encourage Korean firms to increase their participation in global standardization, thus contributing more to ISO," he added.

Cho will be the first Korean to be elected ISO president as well as be the first Korean to serve as chairman of the ISO's General Assembly as well as its board of directors. He will work with current President Ulrika Francke for a year and start his official term for two years in January 2024.

He was previously CEO of Hyundai Autron Co., an electronic control R&D affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group and vice chief of the group’s R&D. Since he became Hyundai Mobis CEO in December 2020, Cho has proven his acumen as an exceptional business leader with rich experience in global standardization.  

Born in 1961, Cho studied mechanical engineering at Seoul National University and earned Ph.D. in engineering from Stanford University.

With 167 member countries, the ISO is the world’s largest standards organization in terms of the number of standards published, more than 24,400 to date in various industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding, aircraft, energy, electronics and healthcare.

Korea became a member of ISO in 1963 and has been a council member for more than 20 years with seven terms since 1993.

The country was elected a member of ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) during the General Assembly meeting, with a three-year term between 2023 and 2025. Korea was a TMB board member for four terms during 2009-2014 and 2016-2021.

Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called Cho to congratulate him on his election as the next ISO president. Yoon asked Cho to make his best efforts to reduce barriers in global trade and technology, as well as to play an important role in Korea becoming a leader in advanced technology standards, Yoon’s presidential office said.

Updated with Cho's comments

Write to Ji-Hoon Lee and Il-Gue Kim at lizi@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.