South Korean battery maker LG Chem said Sunday that its vice chairman hosted the firm’s first-ever recruitment event in Europe in an effort to search for global talent. 

On Friday, Vice Chairman and CEO Shin Hak-cheol hosted the event in Frankfurt, Germany, attended by 30 undergraduate and graduate students from 10 major universities and institutes across Europe. The firm’s Chief Human Resources Officer No In-ho also joined the event. 

The event not only marked the firm’s foray into the European recruiting market, but also Shin’s first time participating in global recruitment, following his nomination as the new CEO of the battery maker in November last year.

The firm decided to add Europe to its global recruitment tour this year as it hopes to bolster competitiveness in the electric vehicle battery and advanced material businesses, according to LG Chem.

LG Chem has two manufacturing plants in Poland, where it produces electric vehicle batteries, and engineering plastics and sales subsidiaries in Germany and Turkey. Its European business logs sales of about 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion), the firm said.

The firm anticipates European sales to grow after 2020, when production begins for third-generation electric vehicles, which can run more than 500 kilometers on a single charge.

Shin also plans to host recruitment events in the US and Japan later this year.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)