Lotte Group on Wednesday promoted Hwang Kag-gyu, head of Lotte Corp., holding company of the South Korean retail giant to vice chairman, and appointed its first female chief executive in its annual management reshuffle.

The group conducted reshuffle of executives at its 20 major affiliates on Wednesday. It will launch another round of management shake-up for 10 other units on Thursday.

Lotte promoted Hwang as vice chairman and made him as de facto second-in-command. He has been Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s right-hand man and handled the conglomerate’s major projects including launching new businesses and leading mergers and acquisitions.

Lee Bong-chul, head of Lotte’s chief financial officer was promoted to president. He is credited for the efforts to restructure corporate governance structure and enhance management transparency.

Kim Hyun-soo, CEO of Lotte Non-Insurance Co. was also promoted to the president, and Cho Hyun-chul, head of management support division at Lotte Aluminum Co. was named as the unit’s new CEO.

Sun Woo-Young, managing director at Lotte Himart Co. was appointed as head of the group’s health and beauty products retail unit Lotte LOHB’s, making her the conglomerate’s first female CEO.

Lotte group’s chairman has underscored the importance of fostering female business professionals and pledged to appoint female CEOs by 2020.

By Lee Han-na and Cho Jeehyun

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