LG Overhauls Governance as Chairman Koo Steps Down from Board Chair After 8 Years

Kwang-mo Koo, chairman of LG Group, is stepping down as chairman of the board of directors at LG Corp. (003550.KS), the group's holding company, after eight years in the role. LG Group plans to replace board chairs at 11 major listed affiliates with independent outside directors to establish a transparent governance framework aligned with global standards, while channeling companywide resources into future growth businesses including robotics and artificial intelligence transformation (AX).

According to industry sources on June 23, LG Corp. will discuss appointing an independent outside director as the new board chair to succeed Koo at a board meeting scheduled for June 26. Koo, who has served as board chair since being named representative director and chairman at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in June 2018, is voluntarily relinquishing the post — a move widely interpreted as a strong group-level commitment to reinforcing the board's independence and oversight function.

Korean companies have long allowed CEOs to concurrently serve as board chairs, citing the need for swift decision-making and efficiency. The rationale was that a CEO well-versed in business operations could drive large-scale investments and strategy at speed while ensuring clear management accountability. However, critics have consistently pointed out that such arrangements undermine the board's core mission of checks and balances over management and concentrate decision-making risk in a single individual.

LG Group made a preemptive decision to dispel those concerns and establish an advanced, board-centric governance structure. The overhaul is spreading rapidly across all affiliates. Starting with LG Innotek (011070.KS) and LG HelloVision (037560.KS) in 2022, the group completed the appointment of independent board chairs at LG Chem (051910.KS) (Professor Cho Hwa-sun of Yonsei University), LG Display (034220.KS) (Professor Oh Jung-seok of Seoul National University), LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) (Special-appointment Professor Park Jin-gyu of Korea University), and HS Ad (Professor Kang Pyeong-gyeong of Sogang University) last month.

LG Electronics (066570.KS), a core affiliate that held its shareholders' meeting on June 23, also joined the governance upgrade by appointing Professor Kang Su-jin of Korea University, an antitrust law expert and outside director, as board chair for the first time in the company's history. Once the remaining listed companies including LG Corp., LG Household & Health Care (051900.KS), and LG Uplus (032640.KS) complete the process through their respective boards, all 11 major listed affiliates will have independent outside directors chairing their boards.

With transparent governance as a foundation, each affiliate is also accelerating its pursuit of future growth engines. Ryu Jae-cheol, CEO and president of LG Electronics, declared at the shareholders' meeting held at LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul, on June 23, "We will establish mass production capability for our core robotics actuator 'Axium' within this year and fully commercialize the business starting in 2027." The goal is to leverage the company's home appliance motor infrastructure to manufacture in-house a key component that accounts for more than 40% of robot costs. The home robot "Cloid," unveiled at CES 2026 earlier this year, will also be deployed first at LG Group business sites next year as part of commercialization efforts.

Expansion of four new business areas is also picking up speed. For AI data center cooling solutions, LG Electronics is broadening its lineup with next-generation liquid cooling technology to become a core infrastructure partner for global big tech companies. Its smart factory business achieved orders worth 500 billion won ($370 million) just two years after launch. "We will increase investment in B2B and platform businesses to grow their revenue and profit by 1.7 times and 2.4 times, respectively, by 2030 compared with last year," Ryu said. "We are also aggressively pursuing AX with a target of improving work productivity by 30%." The shareholders' meeting also approved a dividend of 1,350 won per common share, a 35% increase from the previous year.

LG Innotek, which leads the components ecosystem, is also expanding its reach. Moon Hyuk-soo, CEO of LG Innotek, told reporters after the shareholders' meeting, "We are in discussions with major customers in the U.S. and Europe on robotics components and plan to begin mass production around 2027 to 2028. We expect meaningful figures in three to four years." In addition, the company plans to double its production capacity in the high-value package solutions (semiconductor substrates) business by the second half of 2027 to actively meet market demand.