'Crisis' Samsung overhauls DS with proven tech talent...Empowered Jeon Young-hyun

[Korea Financial Times, Kim JaeHun] Samsung Electronics, which is facing a crisis due to the sluggishness of its flagship semiconductor business, has reorganized its organization by placing proven talents in the front ranks. The three vice chairmen, Jung Hyun-ho, Han Jong-hee, and Jeon Young-hyun, who had attracted attention, were retained. However, the company injected tension by establishing a 'business responsibility system' for the CEOs of each division.

In particular, Jeon Young-hyun, head of the DS (semiconductor) division (vice chairman), who was urgently deployed as a semiconductor firefighter this year, will serve as CEO and directly lead the memory division. In addition, the company is focusing on strengthening its business competitiveness by replacing the head of the foundry division, which has been recording losses, and creating a new technology-related CTO (president-level) position.

Samsung Electronics announced on the 27th a total of nine regular presidential appointments for 2025, including two presidential promotions and seven changes in commissioned duties. In particular, Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun, who was appointed as head of the DS division in May, will become CEO, and the two-person representative system was restored along with the existing DX Division Head (Vice Chairman) Han Jong-hee.
Samsung Electronics plans to restore the two-person CEO system to focus on establishing a business responsibility system for each division, strengthening the competitiveness of its core businesses, and building a foundation for sustainable growth. In fact, Samsung has established a new Quality Innovation Committee and appointed Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee as its chairman to lead fundamental innovations in the quality field.

The appointment of Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun as CEO is seen as a move to revitalize the sluggish DS division. This year, Samsung Electronics has been mired in crisis theories as its buoyant semiconductor division has been criticized for lagging behind in competitiveness. Although the memory sector still maintains the top global market share, it is being evaluated that its future competitiveness is falling behind as it is giving up the lead to its competitor SK Hynix in AI-oriented memory semiconductors such as HBM (high bandwidth memory), which is its core business.

The foundry division, which was emphasized as a new food source for the DS segment, is also facing a widening gap with global No. 1 TSMC due to late process conversion work and persistent yield issues. For this reason, Vice Chairman Jeon Young-hyun issued an unusual apology after the third quarter earnings announcement, emphasizing human renewal and the restoration of fundamental technological competitiveness.

Like the apology letter from Vice Chairman Jeon Young-Hyun, Samsung's new appointments are centered on restoring the fundamental technological competitiveness of the DS division. First, Vice Chairman Jeon Young-Hyun will serve as both the head of the Memory Division and the president of SAIT (formerly Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology). The intention is to do everything in our power to restore competitiveness by strengthening the memory division under the direct control of the CEO.

In addition, a new position of business strategy manager at the president level directly under the DS division was created. This is to focus on increasing the company’s mid- to long-term value by giving senior CEOs with proven global leadership and excellent management capabilities challenges such as brand and consumer experience innovation.

Kim Yong-kwan, Samsung Electronics Business Support T/F (Vice President), has been promoted to the newly established Management Strategy of DS Division president. The new Samsung Electronics Management Strategy of DS Division President Kim Yong-kwan is a strategic planning expert who has worked in semiconductor planning/finance, future strategy office strategy team, and management diagnosis team.

In particular, he was appointed as the head of the Medical Device Division in 2020, and after stabilizing the business, he moved to the Business Support T/F in May this year and contributed as a semiconductor support officer. He is expected to take the lead in a new leap forward in the DS sector and early recovery of semiconductor competitiveness by utilizing his rich business operation experience.

The foundry division, which is in the red, will be headed by a technical expert and will focus on improving its technological competitiveness. The new foundry division will be headed by Mr. Han Jin-man, Vice President and General Manager of DSA. Mr. Han has served in the DRAM/Flash design team, SSD development team leader, and strategic marketing department. He was appointed as head of DSA at the end of 2022 and has been leading the semiconductor business at the forefront in the United States.

“Newly appointed President Han Jin-man has both technical expertise and business acumen,” said a Samsung Electronics official, ”and is expected to innovate process technologies and strengthen networks with key customers, as well as grow the current foundry business competitiveness to the next level.”

In addition, the company will create a president-level chief technology officer (CTO) position to accelerate technological improvements. The CTO of the DS Foundry Division will be Nam Seok-woo, President of Manufacturing & Technology, Global Manufacturing & Infrastructure at Samsung Electronics.

President Nam Seok-woo is an expert in semiconductor process development and manufacturing, and led the development of all memory products at the Semiconductor Research Institute. He later served as the head of the Memory/Foundry Manufacturing Technology Center and the DS Division Manufacturing & Technology Manager, contributing to securing advanced process technology and strengthening manufacturing competitiveness.

A Samsung Electronics official explained about President Nam Seok-woo, “We expect that he will be able to lead the improvement of foundry technology based on his technological leadership accumulated over many years, including expertise in semiconductor processes and abundant manufacturing experience.”

Kim JaeHun (rlqm93@fntimes.com)