KT Taps Veteran Insider Park Yoon-young to Lead Turnaround Amid Hacking Crisis

KT Corp. (030200.KS) has selected Park Yoon-young, a 30-year company veteran and former president of its enterprise business division, as its next CEO candidate, tasking him with addressing a mounting pile of challenges including a major hacking scandal, deteriorating earnings, and the soft landing of its AI and ICT transformation.

The KT board's nomination committee reportedly grilled Park and two other finalists — Joo Hyung-chul, former CEO of SK Communications, and Hong Won-pyo, former CEO of SK Shielders — on how they would handle the ongoing hacking crisis and advance the company's telecommunications and artificial intelligence strategies.

Park joined Korea Telecom, KT's predecessor, in 1992 and has spent his entire career at the company. He was finally selected as the CEO candidate on his fourth attempt, following unsuccessful bids in 2019 and twice in 2023. His track record includes leadership roles in future business development, global operations, and the enterprise division, where he earned recognition for his business-to-business achievements. Industry observers expect him to provide crisis management leadership, leveraging his deep knowledge of KT's internal operations to restore organizational stability and unity.

The incoming CEO's top priority will be resolving the hacking fallout. A joint public-private investigation into unauthorized micropayment fraud that began in September remains ongoing. The new leader must develop measures to prevent recurrence once the investigation concludes. KT has already announced plans to invest more than 1 trillion won in cybersecurity over five years, and observers say any response must include concrete measures capable of restoring customer trust.

"A new CEO must have a solid grasp of security technology trends as a baseline," said Kim Yong-jin, a professor at Sogang University. "In the AI era, hacking defense strategies must become even more sophisticated, so fundamental cybersecurity measures — not stopgap fixes — are essential."

The urgency has intensified following the Coupang personal data breach, which prompted the government to pursue tougher penalties for security incidents. The Ministry of Science and ICT has decided to introduce punitive surcharges of up to 3 percent of revenue — separate from existing fines — for companies with repeated data breaches. The Personal Information Protection Commission also plans to raise the maximum penalty for repeated personal data leaks from 3 percent to 10 percent of revenue.

These developments have heightened earnings uncertainty across the telecom industry. KT is already projecting conservative fourth-quarter results due to costs from free SIM card replacements and penalty fee waivers for affected customers. Consequently, the new CEO will need to continue restructuring low-profit and non-core businesses. The importance of improving profitability has grown amid the government's value-up policy to enhance corporate value. According to KT's corporate value enhancement plan disclosed last month, the company is restructuring 39 low-profit businesses including smart city and solar installation projects, while focusing on improving asset efficiency through monetization of idle real estate unrelated to its telecommunications operations.

The new CEO also faces the task of achieving a soft landing for AI initiatives that lost momentum after the hacking incident. As a key national telecommunications operator, KT must accelerate AI infrastructure expansion, including AI data centers, in line with the government's goal of becoming a top-three AI powerhouse. Securing AI technology capabilities is also urgent after KT was excluded from the government's proprietary AI foundation model project. From an earnings perspective, the company needs to pivot toward an AI-centric business model. KT plans to increase the revenue share from AI and IT — on a standalone basis — from 7 percent in 2024 to more than 19 percent by 2028.

"This is a moment when industry expertise as a CEO who can simultaneously understand and execute both the core telecom business and new growth areas like AI and cloud has become critical," said Kim Dae-jong, a professor at Sejong University. Professor Kim Yong-jin emphasized that "the new CEO must present a vision for how KT, as a network company, can leverage AI and data to succeed in the AI business."