Samsung Electronics appoints first female president

Lee Young-hee [Photo provided by Samsung Electronics]

Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday appointed its first female president outside the owner family members in its annual executive reshuffle.

The South Korean tech giant promoted Lee Young-hee to the president of the Global Marketing Center for Device eXperience (DX) division that overseas its mobile business.

Lee joined Samsung Electronics in 2007 and was promoted to vice president in 2012. As a marketing expert from L‘Oreal, Lee is credited for successfully building Samsung Galaxy mobile phone brand.

Lee is among seven new presidents announced at this year’s corporate reshuffle, which comes after Jay Y. Lee, de facto leader of Samsung Group, was promoted to executive chairman in October.

Samsung Electronics will remain headed by co-CEOs of Han Jong-hee and Kyung Kye-hyun. It did not appoint a new head for its home appliance division, which has been left vacant since Lee Jae-seung resigned in October for personal reasons.