SK promotes restructuring keymen to SK On, SK Discovery top posts

SK Group on Thursday promoted the keymen of its business overhauls to top posts at intermediary holding company SK Discovery Co. and battery maker SK On Co., a move aimed at accelerating restructuring at the energy-to-semiconductor conglomerate.

The second-largest business group in South Korea also brought engineers to the front line of management in an executive reshuffle conducted on Thursday to cement its leadership in the AI chip market, while coping with a slowdown in electric vehicle demand.

Sohn Hyun-ho, vice president and strategy head at SK SUPEX council, was appointed as CEO of SK Discovery. SK SUPEX council is the conglomerate’s top advisory group.

Under SK Discovery are SK Bioscience Co., SK Chemicals Co., SK Gas Ltd., SK D&D Co. and SK Plasma Co.

Chey Chang-won, chairman of the SK SUPEX, holds a 40% stake in the holding firm. He is the cousin of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

“(The reshuffles are) intended to spread the (portfolio) rebalancing we stepped up this year across affiliates,” said an SK Group official. “Chairman Chey’s management motto, ‘let’s go back to basics,’ will gain impetus.”

SK ON, SK HYNIX

Shin Changho, head of the portfolio management division at the group's holding company SK Inc., will lead SK On's operations as a new vice president.

Pi Seungho, CEO of semiconductor wafer producer SK Siltron Co.'s US operations, was named as production head of SK On, which is bleeding red ink.

SK Hynix Inc., the global leader in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used for AI applications, created a development division to oversee all its memory products such as DRAM and NAND flash, as well as relevant solution businesses.

Ahn Hyun, head of SK Hynix’s N-S Committee, was appointed as chief development officer to lead the division.

Launched in 2023, the N-S Committee is in charge of the company's NAND flash development. Ahn joined SK Hynix's board as a director this year.

FINANCIAL HEALTH

SK Group will also focus on shoring up its bottom line. Kim Ki-dong, director of finance at SK Chemicals, will move to SK Inc. as its chief financial officer. SK Inc. oversees investments at SK Group subsidiaries as an investment holding company. 

In Thursday's management overhaul, 75 employees joined the ranks of executives. The number of employees promoted to executive posts dropped from last year’s 82 and 145 in 2022 as the group is cutting jobs and shedding non-core assets.

In October, other SK Group units named new CEOs with engineering backgrounds. The companies include refiner SK Energy Co., packaging materials supplier SK Gio Centric Co. and battery materials producer SK IE Technology Co.

SK AMERICAS

Paul Delaney, vice president and head of government relations at SK Americas Inc., will lead the US arm's government relations and public affairs. He worked as deputy chief of staff at the Office of the US Trade Representative between 2005 and 2008.

SK Group controls hundreds of companies across four mainstay sectors – semiconductors and materials; energy and chemicals; information and communications technology; and logistics, services and bio.

Write to Wu-Sub Kim at duter@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.