Vice-chairman Koo Bon-jun expands business to tanks and civilian aircraft in the confidence of APC CEO.

LG will capitalize on the ‘16-year cooperation’ with the No. 1 US company in the defense industry and aircraft cockpit display to reinforce its high-value-added display business. The long-standing trust between Koo Bon-jun, vice-chairman of LG Electronics, and US leadership, had let to the diversification of LG Display’s business.

According to high-ranking LG officials and the industry on January 26, LG-MRI, LGE’s outdoor signage manufacturer in the US, will introduce 6 new products and reinforce its business this year. LG-MRI is a 50:50 joint venture between LGE and MRI in the US established last year. This company serves as the cornerstone for LGE’s expansion of the outdoor signage business.

LGE appointed ex-MRI executives as the CEO and chairman of the BOD, putting efforts into cooperation with MRI. Peter Kaszycki, CEO of LG-MRI, served as VP in business development at MRI, and Bill Dunn, founder of MRI and chairman of the BOD, is serving as the CEO.

Photo Image
<Koo Bon-jun, vice-chairman of LG Electronics / Electronic Times DB>
Photo Image
<Bill Dunn, CEO of APC and chairman of the BOD of LG-MRI / Photograph=LG MRI>

In particular, chairman Bill Dunn is known as a close business partner of Koo Bon-jun, vice-chairman of LGE. He is the founder of APC (American Panel Corporation), the parent company of MRI, which manufactures and supplies military cockpit displays. He has been receiving panels, such as active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD), from LG since the early stage of this business. APC is the world’s No. 1 company that supplies 100% of the cockpit displays for the US Armed Forces and most of the military cockpit displays to customers like NATO.

“We have been building a powerful exclusive cooperative relationship with LG since 1998,” said APC about cooperation with LG. “LG guarantees highly reliable displays and the quality of backlights and touch screens.” As a matter of fact, most of the cockpit display panels for next-generation firefighters such as the F-16, F-22 and F-35, which APC exclusively supplies, are made by LG.

Like this, the close relationship between the two companies is based on the high level of trust between Koo Bon-jun, vice-chairman of LG Electronics, and Bill Dunn, CEO of APC. Mr. Koo laid the foundation for cooperation with Bill Dunn, CEO of APC, while he served as CEO of LG Philips LCD from 1999 till 2006. As the cockpit display has to withstand extreme conditions, the quality of LG panels found favor in the eyes of Bill Dunn. Given this backdrop, the two companies banded together in the signage business to establish LG-MRI last year.

The collaboration between the two companies will continue in the future. LGE is developing signage as a next-generation growth business with vice-chairman Koo keenly interested in this business, and APC and MRI are expanding their defense business and reinforcing their outdoor signage business respectively. In particular, APC is expanding its business from fire fighters to tanks and civilian aircraft, and from the US to Europe, which is a definite plus to LG.

“It will go a long way towards diversification of LG’s display business,” said an LG insider. “No details of the business have been determined yet.”