Lotte Group appoints vice chairman of hotel business

Lotte Group concluded three days of board meetings on Thursday with the appointment of a new leader to head its hotel business.

Song Yong-deok, CEO and president of Hotel Lotte, has been promoted to vice chairman. The company acknowledged the 62-year-old’s role in the successful launch of the New York Palace Hotel last year and the opening of other overseas locations in Guam and Vietnam.

Hotel Lotte’s vice president, Kim Jung-hwan, will take Song’s former CEO post.

The business-unit model is a new one that Lotte Group implemented this year to simplify the structure of its more than 90 affiliates. It groups them into four categories: retail, chemical, food and hotel.

Chang Seon-yoon, the granddaughter of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, was promoted from director to executive director of Hotel Lotte’s overseas business.