Seo Choong-il on Wednesday took office as the new chief executive of STX Corp., the holding company of the ailing shipbuilder STX Group, pledging to normalize the company and revive sales.

“We will work together with our creditors to normalize management as soon as possible,” Seo, formerly a corporate advisor, said in a statement, adding that the company aims to achieve 2.2 trillion won ($2 billion) in revenue and 40 billion won in operating profit by 2017.

Seo, 59, joined STX Pan Ocean Co., then he Beomyang Merchant, in 1981. Since then he has held diverse leadership positions at STX Group affiliates. As part of the group’s restructuring plan, he had been working as corporate advisor since October.

The holding company’s board of directors and creditors agreed at a meeting on Tuesday to name the STX veteran as the new CEO.

With the latest appointment, former STX Group chairman Kang Duk-soo has resigned from all key positions at the group to take responsibility for management failures that led, among other things, to the court receivership of its core affiliate STX Pan Ocean in August.

(jylee@heraldcorp.com)