Samsung‘s president and head of the home appliance business, Lee Jae-seung, has resigned from his role. Lee is stepping down for personal reasons, Yonhap reports. Han Jong-hee, vice chairman and co-CEO at the company, will take over from him.
Lee has served Samsung for almost four decades now. He joined the Korean behemoth back in 1986 and rose through the ranks to become the president of the company’s home appliance business in December 2020. During his time at the company, Lee played a pivotal role in the development of many innovative home appliances, including the Bespoke Edition devices. He took the leadership role at a critical time when the whole world was battling the coronavirus pandemic and steered the company through it.
But following a surge last year, the tech industry is once again staring at a slowdown due to multiple external factors. The ongoing political tensions between countries have caused economic uncertainty globally. Consumers have gotten cautious about spending big on new devices. While Lee is resigning for personal reasons, he is stepping down at another critical juncture for the company. Perhaps he believes it’s about time for new leadership to take Samsung’s home appliance business forward.
Lee isn’t leaving the company, though. He will reportedly take up the advisory role for the Korean behemoth’s home appliance business. While the long-serving Samsung executive may not directly make business decisions, he may still have some say. As for his successor, it’s unclear if Han will permanently take up the role or if the company will find a new leader in the coming months. Han also leads the Visual Display Business at Samsung.
Samsung is staring at its first profit decline in years
Samsung is losing one of its long-serving executives at a time when the company is staring at its first year-on-year (YoY) profit decline in years. The Korean firm published its Q3 2022 earnings guidance earlier this month, reporting a 31 percent decline in profits from the same period last year. It is expecting to make KRW 10.8 trillion (approx. $7.6 billion currently) between July to September this year. The firm reported an operating profit of KRW 15.82 trillion during the same three months in 2021.
Industry analysts believe Samsung’s semiconductor division suffered a massive decline in profits this past quarter. Declining prices of memory chips and slugging sales affected the business. Its smartphone unit hasn’t fared well either. The company will publish the full earnings report for Q3 2022 later this month.
2022-10-19 15:07:50