The CEO of South Korean Multinational Electronics Co. Ltd and the second largest tech company on the planet, Samsung, Kwon Oh-hyun has resigned.
Mr Kwon who is one of three co-chief executives of Samsung Electronics and also serves on the board of Samsung Electronics said he had been thinking about his departure “for quite some time” and could “no longer put it off.”
In a letter addressed to employees Kwon noted that as the firm is “confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start to anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.”
However, he will remain on the board of Samsung Electronics until March 2018.
According to Ryan Lim, founding partner of the Singapore technology consultancy firm QED, “Samsung is in a leadership crisis situation.
“The current management structure seems to be a complicated web that does not clarify, but rather confuses.
“This needs to be resolved soon as it can be worrying not to know who is truly steering the Samsung behemoth into the future.”
In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for Samsung disclosed that a successor would be appointed “soon” but could not give a time frame.
It is believed in some quarters that Kwon’s resignation is not unconnected to the conviction of the group’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong who was sentenced to five years in jail in August over bribery and corruption.
Mr Lee is accused of giving donations worth 41bn won ($36m; £29m) to non-profit foundations operated by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of South Korea’s former President Park Geun-hye, in return for political favours.
The news of Kwon resignation follows Samsung Electronics’ prediction of record profits for its third quarter: it estimates that it’ll rake in $12.8 billion, which works out to a 179 percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Reacting to the news of the surge in profits Kwon said, “We are fortunately making record earnings right now, but this is the fruit of past decisions and investments; we are not able to even get close to finding new growth engines by reading future trends right now.”
It’s worth noting that a majority of the company’s revenue comes from the chips and components business that Kwon had a hand in building over his 32-year career at Samsung (he’s served as CEO only since 2012).
Sequel to this there are concerns the future of Samsung Group’s biggest earner hangs in the balance.
