Samsung’s mid-tier executive reshuffle: More female and foreign faces

Samsung Electronics Co. on Thursday carried out its year-end reshuffle of mid-tier executives, marked by the highest number of promotions for female and foreign faces in three years.

The top South Korean tech company has also promoted a dozen employees in their 30s and 40s to executive levels, accelerating its push for a generational change in both top-level and second-tier leadership.

A total of 17 foreign and female workers at its Korean and overseas operations have been promoted to executive vice presidential or other senior posts, the largest number since 11 such promotions in 2018.

However, analysts say Samsung and other major Korean conglomerates still lag their foreign rivals in terms of the ratio of female workers at the C-suite and senior executive levels.

“We keep doors wide open for foreigners and female workers in our promotions in pursuit of diversity and inclusion,” Samsung said in a statement.

Among the five foreign nationals assuming executive positions is Jude Buckley, the new senior vice president of Samsung’s US mobile business. He worked at Best Buy and Microsoft before joining Samsung in 2019.

Olaf May will manage Samsung’s smartphone sales and marketing in Germany as vice president.

Among 12 high-profile promotions for women is the ascension of Yang Hye-soon, 53, to senior vice president of the home appliance customer experience division.

She’s known for leading the design concept of the big-hit Bespoke home appliance line that lets users customize their Samsung products with individualized design and configurations.

MORE YOUNG, TALENTED WORKERS AT KEY POSTS

In its latest personnel reshuffle, which affects a total of 198 executive-level officials, Samsung has also promoted a swath of young people in their 30s and 40s in an effort to breathe fresh air into its rigid corporate culture.

Kim Chan-woo, 45, is Samsung’s youngest employee to be promoted to executive vice president. Having previously worked at Google and Microsoft, he will head Samsung Research’s speech processing lab.

Park Sung-beom, 37, has become Samsung’s youngest worker to be promoted to vice president. A mobile processor design specialist, he will manage the company’s system LSI chip design division.

A generational shift at the executive level is becoming an industry-wide trend in Korea. Other large business groups such as LG and SK have also carried out promotions, increasingly tapping young, talented people for key positions.

Samsung’s latest personnel shake-up comes just a couple of days after it conducted its biggest leadership change in four years, replacing chief executives at its three major businesses, and merging its mobile and consumer electronics businesses into a single unit.

At Tuesday’s CEO reshuffle, Samsung promoted Han Jong-hee, 59, head of its visual display business, to vice chairman and co-CEO of Samsung Electronics, to be in charge of the combined mobile and consumer electronics unit.

Kyung Kye-hyun, 58, chief executive of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., has been named co-CEO of Samsung Electronics to lead the device solutions (DS) division, which includes its mainstay semiconductor business.

Samsung Vice Chairman and de facto leader Jay Y. Lee, who on Thursday returned from his four-day trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, has said Samsung must change into a younger and more nimble organization to compete with stronger rivals such as TSMC and Apple Inc.

Last week, Samsung took a set of drastic steps to reduce bureaucracy and hierarchical management to attract and retain young talent.

Write to Shin-Young Park and Su-Bin Lee at nyusos@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.