Samsung Compliance Committee to meet with affiliate CEOs

Chairman of the Committee, Lee Chan-hee. [Photo by Yonhap]

Samsung Group’s compliance committee, an independent body overseeing the South Korean top conglomerate’s corporate compliance management, will meet with the chief executive officers of seven affiliates, including Samsung Electronics Co., on Monday to discuss pending issues such as payment of membership fees to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and labor relations.

This will be Samsung Compliance Committee’s first meeting with the top executives since the launch of its third term in February 2024.

Chairman Lee Chan-hee and all six members of the committee will hold a regular meeting at the Samsung Life Insurance Building in Seocho District, southern Seoul.

They will visit the Samsung Electronics Seocho building for discussions with Han Jong-hee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics; Oh Se-chul, president of Samsung C&T Corp.; Choi Yoon-ho, president of Samsung SDI Co.; Jang Deok-hyun, president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co.; Hwang Sung-woo, president of Samsung SDS Co.; Hong Won-hak, president of Samsung Life Insurance Co.; and Lee Mun-hwa, president of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co.

The Compliance Committee was officially launched in February 2020 and has been conducting compliance monitoring activities under agreements with seven Samsung affiliates, which are renewed every two years. This is the third term of the committee.

Meetings between the committee and Samsung’s top executives were held once during the first term in 2021 and once during the second term in 2022.

The upcoming meeting is expected to discuss compliance management issues such as the membership fees to the FKI, which Samsung has not paid since withdrawing from the country’s biggest business lobby group, and the general strike by Samsung Electronics’ labor union.

The FKI sent official letters to the four major conglomerate groups - Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG - in April, requesting each to pay approximately 3.5 billion won ($2.52 million) in membership fees.

Regarding this, Lee Chan-hee said last month that “since the organization is operated by contributions from its members, the use of funds and post-monitoring systems should be clearly explained and understood by the members.”

The third-term Compliance Committee also plans to meet with Jay Y. Lee, executive chairman of the group. If this meeting takes place as early as next month, it will be the first meeting in 1 year and 10 months since October 2022.