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LG promotes its Home Appliance boss to Chief Executive

The company’s flailing mobile business will have a little more time to recover.

LG

After a couple of rough quarters for its mobile phone division, LG announced today that it will promote Jo Seong-jin, the head of its profitable Home Appliance business, to the role of Vice Chairman and CEO of the company. While the company's new flagship phone, the LG V20, appears to be selling well, the mobile division as a whole has been dragging the company down since Q3 2015 despite record numbers from the the home appliances division.

Despite those losses, LG's mobile division boss Juno Cho will have another opportunity to help his group bounce back from flops like the LG G5. Cho is keeping his position for now, but the South Korean company also promoted 57 other executives this week, compared to the 38 it promoted in last year's yearly restructuring.

Also worth noting: Mr. Jo only holds a high school diploma and no bachelor's degree, but he's been with the company since 1976 when he helped develop LF's first automatic washing machine. (Earning him the nickname "Mr. Washing Machine" in the process.) Since taking over LG's Home Appliance and Air Solution company in 2015, Jo helped roll out the high-end LG Signature brand which is responsible for smart home and IoT devices like this smart fridge with whopping 29-inch tablet built-in.