Samsung Electronics Appointed Young New Executives in Large Scale

Samsung Electronics promoted 221 executives on November 16. The number is the largest since 2014, when 227 were promoted. The large-scale reshuffle implies a change of generation. Earlier, Samsung Electronics replaced many of its older presidents with those in their 50s.

The 221 executives including seven females are divided into 27 vice presidents, 60 senior managing directors, 118 managing directors, one fellow, and 15 masters. No less than 99 got a promotion in the Device Solutions (DS) Division alone. The division recently posted an all-time high profit.

This year, Samsung Electronics boosted the number of new vice presidents so that its pool of CEO candidates can be expanded. Specifically, the number was 18 in 2015, 12 in 2016, and 11 in May this year but rose to 27 this time. They include a number of foreigners such as Mr. James Elliott, who is in charge of memory marketing at Samsung Electronics America. Likewise, the R&D arm of the company had the largest reshuffle ever this time to have the new fellow and masters.

The numbers of foreign and female executives showed a substantial increase this year. Experts pointed out that this reflects Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee’s pursuit of organizational diversity.