Samsung Electronics announced the appointment of Jay Y Lee as executive chairman on Thursday, a move confirming that South Korea’s most valuable company will be officially run by the third generation of its founding family.
The change reflects a role Lee, 54, has held since his father, the late patriarch and Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalised in 2014. The elder Lee died in 2020.
Lee has been vice chairman of Samsung Electronics since 2012.
“The Board cited the uncertain global business environment and the pressing need for stronger accountability and business stability in approving the recommendation,” Samsung said in a dews statement.
Samsung, the world’s biggest maker of memory chips and smartphones, faces business headwinds amid a sharp downturn in worldwide tech demand, caused by soaring inflation, interest rates and a gloomy economic outlook.
Samsung has reported a 31 percent dip in third-quarter profit and said uncertainties were likely to dampen demand until early 2023, as the global economic downturn slashed appetite for electronic devices.
