Samsung names new CEOs, merges mobile and electronics

Samsung Electronics has made sweeping changes to its leadership and structure, combining its mobile and consumer-electronics divisions and naming new co-CEOs.

Jong-Hee (JH) Han, who leads Samsung's visual display business, has been promoted to now lead the entire newly merged division, which the company refers to as the 'SET' division, and becomes the company's vice chairman and CEO. Han is credited with leading the research and development of Samsung TVs, which have continued to top global sales among brands. With no known experience in mobile, he now assumes control of a combined business that is more than five times the size of the former consumer-electronics division. He is "expected to strengthen synergies" and drive growth. 

The other newly named co-CEO of Samsung Electronics is Kyung Kye-hyun, who until now has been CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. A semiconductor design expert, he will lead the chip and components, or DS (Device Solutions), division.

The leadership changes, Samsung's first since 2017 when it named three co-CEOs, are intended "for the next phase of the Company’s future growth and to strengthen its business competitiveness", the company said in a release. They're also the first changes made since its vice chairman Jay Y. Lee was granted parole in August following a bribery and embezzlement conviction. 

Samsung Electronics has remained Asia-Pacific's number one overall consumer brand for the past decade, according to the comprehenseive Asia's Top 1000 Brands survey by Campaign Asia-Pacific and NielsenIQ.