SK Group carried out a reshuffle of leadership of its affiliates on Thursday, which affected seven presidents or CEOs and 141 executives.

SK Chemical CEO Park Jang-suk was promoted to vice chairman as he was credited with his leadership in driving the materials company to become globally competitive, group officials said.

Its chemical business unit head Jeong Khee-bong was promoted to CEO to lead in new materials development together with Park.

SK Chemical’s Kim Cheol, who was leading its resin business, was promoted to CEO. He replaced Lee Mun-seok who moved to SK’s shared growth committee.

Kim Jeong-keun, SK Gas’ business unit head, was promoted to CEO, while Kim Shin, a former CEO of Hyundai Securities, was tapped to head SK Securities.

SK Lubricants chose Lee Ki-hwa, SK Energy’s marketing chief, as its CEO.

The group said no personnel changes were made in the conglomerate’s top decision-making body SUPEX. But it added that there was a generational shift among executives to strengthen competitiveness following economic recovery and in response to global uncertainty.

A total of 141 executives were promoted, a similar level to last year. SK Hynix ― which posted record-high earnings this year ― promoted 43 executives, the highest number among subsidiaries.

About 63 percent of newly appointed executives have engineering backgrounds.

SK adopted a system to promote experts in the areas of research development and process technology to provide them with long-term career opportunities. This year around 20 experts were selected as executives.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)