Hanwha Ocean will increase the number of foreign directors to two on its board of directors. Hanwha Ocean plans to nominate Philippe Levy, head of the marine division (President), who was recruited last year, as an inside director at the regular shareholders' meeting next month. This move is interpreted as an effort to expand its business with the United States as opportunities in shipbuilding and marine defense industries grow under the administration of President Donald Trump.
According to the shipbuilding industry on the 26th, Hanwha Ocean will present Philippe Levy, the current head of the marine division (President of Offshore Business), as a candidate for a new inside director at the regular shareholders' meeting on the 20th of next month. It is anticipated that Ryu Doo-hyung, head of management planning (President), who has one year left in his term among the three inside directors, will step down, and Levy will take his place. To ensure the independence of the board of directors, Hanwha Group requires its listed affiliates to appoint a majority of outside directors. Currently, the Hanwha Ocean board consists of 9 members, including 3 inside directors, 1 other non-executive director, and 5 outside directors, making it impossible to add another inside director to the existing structure.
Levy, who joined Hanwha Ocean in April of last year, is an expert in marine engineering. He worked for 25 years at SBM Offshore, a Dutch-based company specializing in floating marine facilities, and prior to joining Hanwha Ocean, he served as a permanent advisor for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in a joint venture with U.S. ExxonMobil, which was involved in oil field development in Guyana, South America. He is currently leading overseas marine projects of Hanwha Ocean, including floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities in Houston, Texas.
Last December, Hanwha Ocean also obtained Approval In Principle (AIP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a U.S. ship safety verification agency, for the preliminary basic design of a standard FPSO optimized for deep-sea deployment in West Africa.
Currently, there is also a proposal for the reappointment of George P. Bush, a partner at the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, as an outside director to be discussed at the shareholders' meeting. Partner Bush is the grandson of George H.W. Bush, the 41st U.S. president, and the nephew of George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. president. He was elected as land commissioner in Texas and managed state-owned land and oil and gas mineral resources. He was recruited when Hanwha Group newly launched Hanwha Ocean after acquiring Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2023.
If the proposal for the inside director appointment of Levy and the reappointment of Partner Bush as an outside director pass at the shareholders' meeting, the number of foreign directors on the board will increase to two. The shipbuilding industry sees this as Hanwha Ocean actively seeking to leverage foreign directors with strong overseas networks as it moves to expand its shipbuilding and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) business for U.S. Navy vessels. Hanwha Ocean was the first among Korean shipbuilders to win U.S. Navy MRO contracts last year. Its subsidiary, Hanwha System, has also been increasing hiring at the Philadelphia shipyard it acquired and is ramping up shipbuilding operations.
Hanwha Group is accelerating its efforts to become a global corporation by increasing foreign directors in its major subsidiaries. Hanwha Aerospace, its core defense subsidiary, appointed Michael Coulter as CEO for overseas operations last December. He is the first foreign CEO in the domestic defense industry and is awaiting approval procedures at next month's shareholders' meeting. Coulter has previously worked at General Dynamics and Leonardo DRS after serving in the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense.