South Korea’s fifth-largest Lotte Group has turned younger, with executive positions filled with 50s at latest reshuffle to become more agile to fast-changing environment from the pandemic.

Lotte Group on Thursday conducted the year-end executive team reshuffle at 53 affiliates, spanning from retail to food, chemical and hotel.

Lee Young-goo, 58 years old, chief executive officer of Lotte Chilsung Beverage, has been named the head of the group’s food and beverage business unit, replacing Lee Young-ho, 62. Park Yoon-ki, 50, senior vice president of the strategy & planning division at Lotte Chilsung Beverage, was made the new CEO of the company.

Kang Sung-hyun, 50, CEO of Lotte-Nestle Korea, was named the head of Lotte Mart business unit head. Lee Jin-sung, 51, director of Lotte Institute of Economy & Business Strategy was named CEO of Lotte Food. Hwang Jin-goo, 52, CEO of Lotte Chemical USA, was named CEO of Lotte Chemical. Cha Woo-chul, 52, audit team director at Lotte Corporation, was named CEO of Lotte GRS, while Noh Joon-hyung, 52, DT business director at Lotte Data Communication Company, was promoted to CEO of the company.

Koh Soo-chan, 58, executive vice president of Lotte Engineering & Construction, has been promoted as the head of communications at Lotte Corp. Park Eun-jae, an ex-prosecutor was recruited as the head of the legal & compliance division at Lotte Corp.

Lotte Corp. is Lotte Group’s holding entity. It has replaced the heads of all six teams in two years.

Lotte Group retained Kim Kyo-hyun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, as the head of its chemical business unit despite the company’s poor business performance this year, which was largely affected by the pandemic. Sohn Tae-woon, executive vice president of Lotte Chemical USA was promoted to CEO of the company.

This year’s reshuffle at Lotte Group had 80 percent fewer promotions compared with past years. A total of 50 new appointments have been made to the senior management positions, compared with 64 last year. Nearly 20 percent of Lotte Group’s about 600 senior executives are projected to be leaving the company after the reshuffle.

The group reduced the number of senior executive ranks to allow those with more achievements to climb up the ladder faster.

By Kim Gi-jung, Kim Tae-sung, Won Ho-sup, Park Dae-eui, and Cho Jeehyun

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