Samsung Electronics Expected to Appoint Foreigner as Nonexecutive Director

According to industry sources on February 8, Samsung Electronics is planning to hold a general meeting of shareholders on March 23 to appoint new directors, including at least one non-executive and four executive. A former foreign company CEO is expected to be appointed as a non-executive director at the first shareholders’ meeting after the release of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee.

Samsung Electronics increased the number of its executive directors from four to five in October last year. Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun and Vice Chairman Shin Jong-kyun were the four before, but President Lee Sang-hoon is scheduled to join them to head the board of directors. As a result, Samsung Electronics has to appoint at least one new non-executive director at the upcoming meeting of shareholders.

Back in November 2016, the company announced that it would recommend a former CEO of a foreign company on the Fortune 100 list as a non-executive director in 2017 in the interest of shareholder value promotion. However, the process was put on hold as Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee was put in jail in February last year.

Samsung Electronics set up a governance committee in its board of directors in April 2017 for the purpose of governance structure improvement. The committee was expected to take a pivotal role during Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee’s corporate governance reform led by the board, but it has remained dormant due to his absence. However, the committee is expected to come to the front after the board is reorganized at the shareholders’ meeting.

According to some insiders, the new non-executive director is likely to head the committee made up of non-executive directors while the new chairman of the board, President Lee Sang-hoon, heads the Management Committee to oversee investment decisions and so on as an executive director.