Lotte Group founder’s son promoted to chairman

Lotte Group, a retail-focused Korean conglomerate, promoted Vice Chairman Shin Dong-bin to chairman in a reshuffling carried out Thursday.

The group, which operates chains of Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart and Lotte Super and retail giant GS Group, promoted a total of 172 executives including seven new presidents for its subsidiaries, it said in a statement.

Lotte’s founder and former chairman Shin Kyuk-ho will continue to supervise management in Korea and Japan, it added.

The founder’s younger son played a key role last year in leading the group to record high sales of 61 trillion won ($54.7 billion), Lotte said, by bolstering operations at home and abroad.

Shin Dong-bin, 56, graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan and started as an executive director at Lotte’s affiliate Honam Petrochemical Corp. in 1990.

He announced in 2009 a new corporate vision for the company to become one of the top 10 business groups in Asia.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)