Samsung Electronics Appoints Former Minister Park Jae-wan as New Chairman of the Board

Jae-wan Park, Newly Appointed Chairman of Samsung Electronics Board of Directors

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Samsung Electronics has appointed former Minister of Strategy and Finance Park Jae-wan as the new chairman of the board.

Samsung Electronics announced on the morning of the 21st that it held a board meeting at its headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and appointed former Minister Park as the new chairman.

This is a follow-up measure after Samsung Electronics President Lee Sang-hoon conveyed his intention to resign from his position as inside director and chairman of the board on the 14th. Lee was legally detained at the end of last year on charges related to the dissolution of the Samsung Electronics Service labor union.

Former Minister Park, who had been considered a candidate for the next chairman since the end of last year, was reportedly reluctant to take on the chairman role until recently. However, he decided to accept the position to prevent a prolonged vacancy in the chairman post.

The chairman of the board leads Samsung Electronics' board and plays a key role in major decision-making. Until now, this role has mainly been held by professional managers, and this is the first time an outside director has been appointed as chairman of the board.

Former Minister Park was appointed as an outside director of Samsung Electronics in 2016. Among the six outside directors of Samsung Electronics, he is the most senior and concurrently serves as the chairman of the Governance Committee and the Audit Committee. The Governance Committee and Audit Committee are internal board organizations established to improve corporate governance, review management matters, strengthen shareholder communication, and audit company operations.

Park is a former bureaucrat who worked at the Ministry of Finance and the Board of Audit and Inspection. After leaving public office in 1996, he worked as a professor at Sungkyunkwan University. He entered politics in 2004 as a proportional representative for the Grand National Party in the 17th National Assembly and served as Senior Secretary for Policy Planning at the Blue House, Minister of Employment and Labor, and Minister of Strategy and Finance during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics' regular shareholders' meeting will be held on the 18th of next month. At this shareholders' meeting, Samsung Electronics will introduce electronic voting for the first time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.