LG Uplus appointed Hong Bum-shik, head of corporate strategy at LG Group’s holding unit, as CEO, replacing Hwang Hyeon-sik, who held the position since 2021.

Hong has been a non-executive director for LG Uplus and its broadcasting subsidiary LG HelloVision since 2022. He joined LG Corp in 2019 after holding strategy roles at SK Telecom and Bain & Company.

Hwang leads the company’s AI growth strategy, recently targeting generating KRW2 trillion ($1.4 billion) in B2B revenue by 2028 by applying the technology across all services.

The move was part of a series of organisational changes and executive appointments at LG Corp approved by the board of directors.

GSMA Intelligence data placed LG Uplus as the third-largest mobile operator in South Korea with 19.7 million mobile connections at end-September.

The operator booked double-digit declines in profit over the past two quarters, with Q3 net income falling 13.9 per cent year-on-year to KRW134.9 billion ($96.5 million) due to rising operating and marketing expenses.