November 26, 2024

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LG Display President Jeong Cheol-dong (LG Display)

LG Display's newly appointed chief executive officer Jeong Cheol-dong emphasized the importance of improving performance for turnaround as he begins his official duty Friday.

"Getting out of the red is the most urgent priority, and for that, it is important that we complete the deals as we promised to our customers and achieve our planned targets,” Jeong said, sending his inaugural message to employees via email.

"We will put a strong drive on cost innovation across the business while improving quality, price and delivery -- the most basic elements of corporate competitiveness -- to build a solid company."

Jeong's message comes as the Korean display maker has recorded an operating loss for six consecutive quarters as of the third quarter this year, with the accumulated loss amounting to 2.6 trillion won ($2 billion) this year.

Chosen for the position in the regular reshuffle last week, Jeong formerly served as the president of LG Innotek, an electronic component manufacturer under LG Group. Jeong is a veteran LG employee, holding various positions in LG Display, LG Chem and LG Innotek over the past 40 years.

He also worked at LG Display for 12 years, from 2004 to 2016.

"I am back after seven years and I feel a great sense of responsibility for taking on the task at a time when the company has been struggling for years," Jeong said in the message.

"I will work to strengthen the company's next generation technologies by collaborating with the clients, and also focus on nurturing talents for future competitiveness."

Leading LG Innotek as the CEO from 2019 to 2022, Jeong is seen to have achieved remarkable improvement in profit.

While the electric components manufacturer posted 7.9 trillion won in sales and 476 billion won in operating profit in 2019, the figures steadily grew to log 19.5 trillion won in revenue and 1.2 trillion won in operating profit in 2022.

By Hwang Joo-young (flylikekite@heraldcorp.com)