Will Samsung Have Its First Female President? All Eyes on Vice President Lee Young-hee

Samsung Executive Personnel Changes Scheduled for Early December
Zero Female Presidents Including President Lee Boo-jin

Lee Young-hee, Vice President of Samsung Electronics.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Yeju] LG Group has produced a female professional executive president. She is the first non-owner to achieve this among the top 5 conglomerates. Now, industry attention is focused on Samsung. The leading candidate for Samsung's first female president is Lee Younghee, who has held the vice president position for 10 years and is the head of Samsung Electronics' Global Marketing Center. As this is the first personnel appointment led by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong since he officially took the helm, there is keen interest in whether Samsung's "glass ceiling" will be broken.

According to industry sources on the 29th, LG Household & Health Care promoted Vice President Lee Jeong-ae (59) to president on the 24th and designated her as the next CEO. Lee joined the company as a new employee in 1986 and became the group's first female executive through the open recruitment system (2009) → first female executive director (2012) → first female vice president (2015), and after 36 years with the company and 13 years as an executive, she rose to become a female CEO.

This is the first time among the top 5 conglomerates?Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, and Lotte?that a female professional executive who is not from the owner family has become a president-level representative. Although female representatives have occasionally appeared, except for CEO Lee Jeong-ae, none were at the president level.

The business community is also paying attention to whether Samsung Group will produce its first female professional CEO in its executive appointments. Samsung is expected to conduct president and executive appointments in early December as usual.

Vice President Lee Younghee is mentioned as a candidate for promotion. She is Samsung Electronics' second female vice president. Born in 1964, Lee worked mainly in marketing for Korean branches of foreign companies such as Leo Burnett Korea, Unilever Korea, SC Johnson Korea, and L'Or?al Korea before being recruited by Samsung Electronics in 2007 as a marketing executive. Since 2017, she has served as head of the Global Marketing Center, leading marketing activities to enhance brand awareness of Samsung Electronics' home appliances, smartphones, and various other products in overseas markets.

Lee has been spotlighted as a potential first female president candidate every year ahead of Samsung Electronics' year-end executive appointments in recent years. She significantly contributed to the success of Samsung Electronics' smartphone brand "Galaxy" and wearable brand "Gear," and her recognition as an externally recruited talent helped her rise to vice president.

The late Chairman Lee Kun-hee said in 2011, "Women may not fully realize their potential if they stop at being executives. Women should be able to become presidents," and "Women have ability and flexibility. They have no reason to lose in competition," but so far, Samsung has never had a female president other than Lee Boo-jin, the owner-family member and president of Hotel Shilla.

As Chairman Lee Jae-yong's "New Samsung" vision is expected to be concretized through this personnel appointment, it is anticipated that Lee Younghee's appointment will further emphasize a change in the company's personnel policy to promote based on ability regardless of origin or gender.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics announced in its 2011 Sustainability Management Report a goal to increase the proportion of female executives to over 10% within 10 years, but as of 2020, the figure stood at 6.6%, falling short of the self-set target.