Samsung Mobile to Get New Leadership
May 15, 2017
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Samsung Electronics has named a new head of mobile marketing, as well as a China chief, as part of a long-delayed executive reshuffle following the arrest of it’s vice chairman for alleged bribery.  The reshuffle, while quite meaningful, looks more like a stopgap measure rather than a long-term fix, as Samsung copes with the fallout from the absence of Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee.  Samsung said Executive Vice President Choi Kyung-sik had been promoted to lead the mobile division's strategic marketing office as part of a shake-up at the product businesses such as smartphones and televisions. Choi's predecessor, Lee Sang-chul, had been reassigned to oversee Southeast Asian operations. Kwon Kye-hyun was named head of the China business, where Samsung's smartphone sales have struggled to regain momentum amid competition from the likes of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd OPPO and Vivo. Samsung’s smartphone sales in China dropped from 10.6% in 2015 to 4.6% of total sales in 2016, a good reason to change management. Samsung Electronics typically announces such appointments at the end of a year but it did not do so in December as it was embroiled in the graft scandal that led to Lee's detention and the ouster and arrest of former President Park Geun-hye. The company is expected to deliver record profits this year, on the back of a memory market boom and strong sales of its Galaxy S8 smartphones. 

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