Samsung has reportedly shuffled its leadership teams in foundry and memory business units. The company has replaced some top-level executives and moved some others to new roles. This comes shortly after company-wide strategy meetings of senior executives from its various global offices and in the wake of the chip division’s first quarterly losses in 14 years.
According to the Korean publication The Elec, Samsung’s semiconductor division, officially called the Device Solution unit, has named Gitae Jeong as the new CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of its foundry business. Jeong was previously the head of development, a role now taken up by Jahun Koo. Hwang Sang-jun, who was the head of strategic marketing of the memory business, has been tasked with leading the DRAM development team. Yun Ha-ryong is his replacement.
Additionally, Samsung has named You Chang-shik and Oh Tae-young as the head of advanced development and head of design of its memory business. Its network business unit has also formed a new advanced development team for the first time. While it isn’t unusual for the Korean conglomerate to make these kinds of leadership shuffles, a mid-year change is rare. It reflects the company’s recent struggles, particularly in semiconductor and foundry businesses.
Samsung makes a leadership shuffle amid foundry struggles
Samsung has found it difficult to get any closer to TSMC in the foundry sector. The Taiwanese firm captures almost two-thirds of the market, leaving Samsung and others a small portion to fight for. While the Korean biggie still leads the memory chip market, dropping prices and growing competition have hit it there as well. As said earlier, Samsung suffered its first quarterly losses from the chip division since 2008 earlier this year (Q1 2023).
The outlook for the semiconductor market for the rest of the year isn’t any better. As a long-term vision, the company plans to continue investing in advanced chip technologies despite the losses. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t try to do things differently and return to profitability as soon as possible. A leadership shuffle may be one of the strategic changes in pursuit of that short-term goal.
Samsung may have decided on this leadership change for the foundry and memory businesses during its multi-day executive meetings last month. The company gathered hundreds of senior executives from its offices all around the world to discuss plans to tackle the ongoing economic downturn. Time will tell whether Samsung’s semiconductor struggles end anytime soon.
2023-07-05 15:05:49