CHANGWON — Park Tae-hoon, former chief executive of Gyeongnam Trade, has been appointed the eighth president of the Gyeongnam Robot Land Foundation despite criticism that he lacks experience in the robotics field. His two-year term runs through Sept. 22, 2028.
South Gyeongsang Province said on the 23rd that it had appointed Park to the post. He will oversee the foundation's overall management, including fostering the robot industry, external cooperation and investment attraction, normalizing operations of the Robot Land theme park, and improving its financial performance.
Park began his career at BNK Kyongnam Bank, where he served as head of the regional development finance division and the international business division, before leading Gyeongnam Trade, a provincially funded entity, from 2015 to 2018. Until the end of last year, he spent two years and two months as head of the regional partnership policy unit at BNK Financial Group's management research institute. He has also served as an outside director at the Changwon Cultural Foundation and the Ramsar Foundation and as chairman of the board of Haman Development Corporation, and worked for about two years from 2020 to 2022 as an aide to Yoon Han-hong, a People Power Party lawmaker representing the Masanhoewon district of Changwon.
The foundation formed a presidential recommendation committee in July after the previous president's term expired and opened the position to public applications. It recommended a candidate following a document review and interviews. Park drew criticism over his lack of robotics expertise at a Sept. 16 confirmation hearing before the economy and environment committee of the South Gyeongsang Provincial Council, but received a finding of "suitable." The Democratic Party caucus in the Changwon City Council, however, called for the appointment to be withdrawn, saying he was not fit to lead efforts to build up the robot industry and turn around Robot Land.
Park plans to focus on the foundation's core mission of fostering the robot industry and supporting companies, as well as on pressing issues such as normalizing Robot Land theme park operations through external cooperation and investment attraction.
"Robot Land is an important asset for South Gyeongsang Province because it encompasses both a theme park and the robot industry, so it is important that the foundation hold steady and produce tangible results," said Choi Man-rim, vice governor for economic affairs. "I hope President Park will draw on the management and external cooperation experience he has built up to strengthen the organization's execution capacity and work with related agencies to resolve the tasks at hand with speed."
The Gyeongnam Robot Land Foundation is a provincially funded institution established to build the regional robot industry base and contribute to upgrading its structure. In addition to central government funding, South Gyeongsang Province contributed 100 billion won and the city of Changwon 110 billion won.
The governor of South Gyeongsang Province holds the authority to appoint the foundation's chief executive, but because Changwon contributed 110 billion won, the province and the city have alternated in recommending candidates for the post.
