Seoul – Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the newly elected president of South Korea’s second-largest TV network MBC took office on February 25, 2014, vowing to rebuild the company’s status as one of the nation’s most popular TV channels by providing differentiated programming.

Ahn Kwang-han, who led MBC’s cable TV unit, MBC Plus Media, was officially elected MBC’s president in a shareholders’ meeting on February 21. MBC’s largest shareholder, the Foundation for Broadcast Culture, has a 70 percent stake in the broadcaster.

New MBC President Ahn Kwang-han

“We’ll focus on making high-quality content and turn it into a new engine for growth,” Ahn said during an inauguration ceremony at the MBC headquarters in Seoul.

The 57-year-old chief also vowed efforts to reignite the global boom of South Korean pop culture known as “hallyu” by reviving the TV station’s capacity to make appealing and differentiated programmes.

A graduate of Korea University, Ahn started his career at the TV channel as a producer in 1982. He worked as vice president under former president Kim Jae-chul whose alleged political bias in favor of then-President Lee Myung-bak sparked a six-month-long strike by unionised MBC employees in 2012.

Ahn will serve his three-year term as MBC president until 2017.