1980s Samsung Home Appliances Sales Head
Fierce Sales Battle with Geumseong Corporation
Contributed to Choi Jin-sil's 1988 Advertisement
Also Excelled at Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung General Chemicals
Hwang Seon-du, former Executive Vice President in charge of domestic sales at Samsung Electronics who led the sales of Samsung Electronics' home appliances in South Korea during the 1980s and engaged in fierce sales battles with Geumseongsa (now LG Electronics), passed away on the 13th at around 5:50 PM. He was 84 years old.
Hwang Seon-du, former Vice President in charge of domestic sales at Samsung Electronics (President of Samsung General Chemicals). Photo by family.
He was born in 1940 in Haman, Gyeongnam, graduated from Korea University with a degree in Economics in 1964, and joined Samsung Group as part of the 7th open recruitment in December 1965. In 1981, he was promoted to Managing Director at Cheil Industries. While mainly handling management duties at Cheil Industries and Cheil Fibers, he moved to Samsung Electronics as Executive Director in 1984 and entered the sales field.
At that time, Samsung Electronics was trailing behind Geumseong in the domestic home appliance market. It is said that he made various efforts to surpass Geumseong. In 1988, after being promoted to Vice President in charge of domestic sales at Samsung Electronics, he contributed to launching a video tape recorder (VTR) commercial featuring the then rising star Choi Jin-sil (1968?2008) with the slogan "Men depend on women," which helped Samsung Electronics overtake Geumseong in the home appliance market for the first time.
In 1991, he served as CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics and strengthened the international division of labor system by relocating electronic component manufacturing facilities to China and re-importing them to Korea. During his tenure as president of Samsung General Chemicals (now Hanwha Impact) from 1992 to 1996, the company acquired Korea Fertilizer and, together with Hyundai, laid the foundation for turning the export structure of Korea's petrochemical sector into a surplus. In 1994, he concurrently served as head of the Samsung Group's chemical sub-group. After serving as a counselor at Samsung Precision in 1997, he was an advisor at Samsung Precision Chemicals in 2000. He received the Silver Tower Industrial Medal and the $500 million Export Tower in 1991, and a Presidential Citation in 1996.
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