Samsung Group’s promotions this year centered on the young, women and the best-performing.

On Friday, Samsung promoted 485 employees to executive status. The move followed the CEO-level promotions carried out earlier this week.

Among the group, 335 employees ― the largest number so far ― were promoted as executives. Among them, 74 received early promotions, while four were in their 30s. Last year, Samsung had granted early promotions to less than 60 employees.

Women also received more promotions, with 12 being promoted. The number is small considering the group’s more than 200,000 employees, but it was the largest number to date.

Friday’s promotions centered mostly on the mobile unit for its role in paving Samsung’s way to the top in the global smartphone market, which is now estimated to be worth over $200 billion by think tanks.

Slightly more than one-fifth of all early promotions, and about one-third of the exceptional promotions given two years before they are due, came from this unit.

Senior vice presidents Roh Tae-moon, Kim Byung-hwan and Kim Hee-deog, who belongs to the mobile unit, were all promoted to executive vice president.

Of the younger employees, Cho In-ha of home appliances and Ryu Je-hyoung, a manufacturing engineer, were promoted to vice president despite there being three more years left in their terms as managers. Cho, in particular, was made executive just nine months after he was promoted to manager.

Kim Kyoung-hoon and Park Chan-woo were also promoted to vice presidents for their respective roles in television design and smartphone marketing skills. 

Among the women, senior vice president Lee Young-hee was promoted to vice president for her role in actively marketing the Galaxy smartphone lineup.

There were, however, no promotions of women to chief executive status, despite Samsung owner Lee Kun-hee’s previous statement that women should be made CEOs.

As part of its bigger picture to give all employees equal opportunities and incentives, not to mention recognition for their roles, Tim Baxter of Samsung Electronics’ U.S. office became the first non-Korean to be promoted to executive vice president. He was recognized for his role in maintaining a 30 percent market share in the U.S.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)