Hyosung Heavy Industries on Monday announced that it has appointed Woo Tae-hee, an international trade specialist who currently serves as the vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as its new CEO overseeing the company's heavy industry and construction businesses.

Woo, 62, a graduate of Yonsei University's Department of Public Administration in 1984, obtained his doctorate in business from Kyung Hee University in 2011.

After passing the public service examination in 1983, Woo served as a senior administrator at the presidential economic policy office from 2006 to 2007 during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and as an economic counselor at the South Korean Embassy in the US from 2007 to 2009. Woo was then dispatched to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy to serve diverse roles such as the chief trade negotiator and vice minister.

Following four years of teaching at Yonsei University between 2017 and 2020, he was appointed as a vice chairman of the KCCI, the nation’s largest business lobby, in 2020. Woo's three-year term expires on March 25.

Hyosung Heavy Industries said the new CEO will contribute to expanding the company's global presence and cultivating new growth avenues by leveraging his expertise in trade and policy affairs.