Ex-Samsung Electronics President Hwang Chang-gyu designated as KT chairman

Hwang Chang-gyu, who worked as president of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business division from 2004 to 2008, has been designated as new chairman of KT Corp.

The designation came in a meeting of the company’s CEO committee held at its office in Socho-dong, southern Seoul, late Monday.

If the designation is approved in a meeting of KT’s shareholders scheduled for mid-January, Hwang, 60, will lead KT, South Korea’s No. 2 mobile operator.

He was chosen from among four finalists, including Kwon Oh-chul, advisor to SK hynix; Kim Dong-su, former vice minister of information and communication; and Lim Ju-hwan, former head of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

The post has been vacant since mid-November when Lee Suk-chae resigned after prosecutors began to investigate him on charges of breach of trust.

Hwang led the development of the world's first 256Mb dynamic random access memory in 1994 and the world's first NAND Flash in 1999.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com