HL Group has replaced the CEO of its key affiliate HL Mando, handing the job to President Park Youngmoon and creating a new group strategy chief role — the sharpest executive reshuffle the Korean auto parts group has made in years.

The group announced the appointments on the 2nd. Park, 61, previously the China regional representative, becomes CEO of HL Mando and head of its Auto Sector. He replaces Vice Chairman Cho Sung-hyun, 66, who has led HL Mando since November 2021 and will step down after roughly five years in charge.

Park's résumé runs almost entirely through engineering and China. He graduated from Kyungnam University's mechanical engineering department, joined the company in 1990, and built his reputation through a series of technical and regional posts. Those included head of the development team at the steering research institute, CEO of Mando R&D China, and HL Mando's China regional representative.

Senior Executive Vice President Bae Hong-yong will take charge of HL Mando's research organization as CTO.

What changes inside HL Mando?

The company is flattening how it runs itself. HL Mando plans to strengthen a region-centered responsible management system — in plain terms, giving regional bosses direct accountability for results. It will simplify its existing three organizational pillars of products, functions and regions into just two: regions and functions. The stated aim is simple. Speed up decision-making and business execution.

The company is also adding a Korea representative post to sit alongside those for China, the Americas, India and Europe, underlining its commitment to that decentralized model.

Who are the new young CEOs?

The reshuffle puts chief executives in their 40s at two listed group companies for the first time.

• Song Gi-taek, 48, an executive vice president who previously headed the integrated logistics business division, becomes CEO of HL Holdings' business division. He studied industrial engineering at Hanyang University.
• Yoo Jae-eon, 45, a managing director who oversaw human resources at affiliate HL D&I Halla, was tapped as CEO of HL Ecotech.

Both companies said they plan to improve the performance of existing businesses and build more robust business portfolios by bringing in younger talent.

Why a group strategy chief?

At the group level, HL is tightening its grip on future growth. It created the position of group strategy chief and appointed Senior Executive Vice President Jung Jae-young.

The plan is twofold: align the strategic direction of the group and its affiliates, and identify new businesses while exploring ways to build new supply chains.

An HL Group official framed the broader logic in unusually blunt language. "Under a 'Disruption' approach that breaks with the existing framework, the plan is to boldly overhaul the company-wide organizational structure and step up management innovation," the official said.

What's the read-through?

Three moves, one direction. A China-tested engineer now runs the parts flagship. Regional bosses get more power and fewer layers between them and a decision. And a new group-level strategist hunts for businesses the group doesn't yet own.

For a supplier that lives and dies by automakers' product cycles, faster decisions matter. Cutting the product pillar from the organizational chart signals that regions, not product lines, will now carry the responsibility for execution — and the accountability when it falters.

The generational signal is just as deliberate. Promoting two 40-somethings to listed-company CEO posts for the first time in the group's history tells the rest of the bench that age is no longer the gating factor it once was.