April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Group is expected to carry out a reshuffle of its executives as early as this month, according to sources on Monday.

Korea’s largest conglomerate usually carries out reshuffles and appointments of its executives, as well as CEOs, in December.

However, Samsung delayed last year’s appointments after the company was embroiled in a corruption scandal which led to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and the arrest of Lee Jae-yong, the company’s de facto leader.

“It is true there are talks that the reshuffle of executives should no longer be delayed because they are the hands-on personnel for the group’s overall operation,” a source from Samsung told The Korea Herald. 

Samsung Group’s main affiliate Samsung Electronics has reportedly completed much of the restructuring process through its human resource division.

As for the appointments of new CEOs, they are expected to be carried out around or after August when Lee’s trials are set to end.

The naming of the CEOs -- usually in the form of trades among affiliates or promoting vice presidents to fill in the vacancies left by retirees -- used to be done by the strategy office, although they received nominal approval from the board members. However, since the strategy office was dismantled in February, the group is currently without a control tower or guidelines to appoint CEOs. There are about 40 CEO posts at the group.

The source explained that designating the posts require deeper scrutiny and managerial approval compared to appointments of some thousands of executives.

Regarding the reshuffle of executives, Samsung declined to comment, saying “Nothing has been confirmed yet.”

In March, Samsung carried out a reshuffle of its junior-level employees alongside the abolition of the strategy office. Also, the group promoted Samsung Electronics’ memory chip unit chief Jun Young-hyun to Samsung SDI CEO and appointed Samsung Heavy Industries’ production chief Kim Jong-ho as the head of Samsung Electronics‘ global quality innovation division in March as part of the company’s effort to dispel the Note 7 debacle.

By Shin Ji-hye/The Korea Herald (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)