Samsung chief's right-hand man steps back in early leadership reshuffle

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Chung Hyun-ho is stepping down from his role as head of the business support task force, marking his retirement from front-line management.

Chung Hyun-ho, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics [YONHAP]

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Chung Hyun-ho is stepping down from his role as head of the business support task force, marking his retirement from front-line management. The temporary unit, established eight years ago, will be reorganized into a permanent division to be led by President Park Hark-kyu.

Chung’s resignation is seen as a move that further consolidates Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s control over management, especially after he was cleared of legal risks earlier this year.

Samsung Electronics announced Friday that Chung had retired and would move into an advisory role assisting the chairman. The company also said it had reassigned key executives from the business support task force, an unexpected reshuffle ahead of its year-end appointments.

Chung has long been known as Lee’s right-hand man, overseeing the conglomerate’s management affairs at close range. Joining Samsung in 1983, he later served in the financial team of the Samsung Secretariat Office, the precursor to the Future Strategy Office.

In 2011, Chung became head of the management support and human resources teams at the Future Strategy Office, earning the trust of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee as a key strategist. Following the dismantling of the Future Strategy Office after a 2017 corruption scandal, Chung took the helm of a newly formed business support task force and led it for eight years.

Park, who joined Samsung Electronics’ accounting team, will now replace Chung as head of the newly established business support office. A veteran financial expert, Park previously served in the Secretariat Office and the Future Strategy Office, and was also Samsung’s chief financial officer.

Park joined the task force at the end of 2024 and has since worked closely with Chung, earning a reputation for a meticulous and determined management style.

Park Hark-kyu, head of the Business Support Office at Samsung Electronics [SAMSUNG]

The reshuffle reportedly reflects a direct decision by Lee. “Now that Samsung is recovering from a difficult period, Chairman Lee appears to have decided that it was time to bring in a new leadership team,” said an industry source.

The chairman was acquitted by the Supreme Court in July on charges related to the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and the accounting practices of Samsung Biologics, freeing him from the judicial risks that had dogged him for years. Chung’s resignation is interpreted as part of this transition, allowing for a generational shift in leadership.

Samsung Electronics had faced mounting criticism since 2024 for falling behind in the high bandwidth memory (HBM) race amid the global AI boom. However, the company has recently begun to rebound thanks to a memory chip upturn and is accelerating its efforts to mass-produce HBM4.

On Oct. 30, Samsung reported third quarter revenue of 86.1 trillion won ($59 billion) and operating profit of 12.2 trillion won, up 9 percent and 3 percent, respectively, from a year earlier — the highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history.

The establishment of the business support office, composed of three divisions — "strategy," "management diagnosis" and "people" — is viewed by the industry as a formal end to Samsung’s “emergency management system” following the dissolution of the Future Strategy Office.

Lee Jae-yong, executive chairman of Samsung Electronics [YONHAP]

President Choi Yoon-ho, formerly the head of the management diagnosis office at Samsung Global Research, has been named head of the new strategy team. Executive Vice President Joo Chang-hoon will lead the management diagnosis team, while Executive Vice President Moon Hee-dong will head the people team. The office is expected to focus on strengthening Samsung’s business competitiveness and identifying new growth opportunities.

Samsung has also moved the management diagnosis office, previously under Samsung Global Research, into the new business support office to bolster its organizational structure.

The company emphasized, however, that the restructuring has no connection to reviving a “command center” similar to the disbanded Future Strategy Office.

“This is purely for organizational stability,” a Samsung spokesperson said. “The new office is much smaller in scale than the former Future Strategy Office.”

The earlier-than-usual reshuffle was reportedly influenced by Chairman Lee’s packed overseas travel schedule through the end of the year. With Chung’s retirement, further leadership changes among Samsung’s presidents are expected in the near future.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY PARK HAE-LEE [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]