Samsung Electronics names new CEO

Samsung Electronics today announced Oh-hyun Kwon will be the company’s new CEO, taking over from Gee-sung Choi, who will be heading to a new corporate strategy position for the entire Samsung group. Choi is widely regarded as the man who turned around Samsung’s fortunes and cemented the company’s leadership in smartphone business to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor.
Prior to this announcement, Kwon was the head of Samsung’s chipset and display component biz, a fast growing area, where the company has become one of the top players. Samsung manufactures processors for Apple’s iPhone and iPad and is the world’s largest supplier of memory chips. Samsung says business will continue as usual and Kwon will continue to head the components business. However, in order to maintain the perception that the components arm of Samsung does not reveal details of rival’s plans, heads of Samsung’s finished goods units like ‘TV and Appliances’ and ‘Telecom and IT’ won’t report to Kwon.
The change of guard at Samsung also indicates the Korean giant’s ambition to control and dominate the fast growing smartphone and tablet markets. Not only does Samsung want to ensure that it sells more smartphones but also the components that go into them, even when it comes to a rival’s products. It also announced investing $1.9 billion in a new logic chip line that will manufacture processors for smartphones and tablets using 20nm and 14nm processing technology.