Hansol Group paper affiliate Hansol Paper is elevating the chief safety officer (CSO) to the level of CEO to strengthen "safety management."
According to the paper industry on the 31st, Hansol Paper has tapped Go Min-hyeok, head of human resources support at Hansol Holdings, as Hansol Paper CSO, and plans to elevate the CSO position to the level of CEO and newly appoint the executive as head of safety. Go, the new head of safety, will be formally appointed early next year after a board resolution and a shareholders meeting.
With this personnel move, Hansol Paper will shift to a "two-person separate CEO system" with current CEO Han Gyeong-rok and new head of safety Go Min-hyeok. Han, the son-in-law of Hansol Group Chairman Cho Dong-gil, will continue to oversee company management as before, and Go, the new head of safety, will be responsible for safety management.
Hansol Paper will also integrate into one the safety management organizations that had been operated separately for the paper business and the water treatment and environmental management businesses. The company said it plans to strengthen the consistency and expertise of its safety management system through the organizational integration.
The industry sees Hansol Paper's personnel and organizational overhaul as reflecting a trend in which the importance of safety management has grown across industry since the enforcement of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. It also expects this safety-management push to spread across the paper industry.
An official in the paper industry said, "The most important issue in the paper industry recently is safety," adding, "This organizational overhaul by Hansol Paper shows the company's determination to establish a thorough safety management system."
The official added, "Other paper companies are also likely to move to build proactive risk management systems, such as strengthening the authority of safety management officers."