The Korea Herald

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Samsung Group promotes 475 executives

Largest number of foreign and female executives involved in latest reshuffle

By Kim Young-won

Published : Dec. 5, 2013 - 20:04

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Samsung Group conducted its year-end reshuffle Thursday, saying that performance and competence of each figure were the focus of its decisions.

The largest family-run conglomerate in Korea promoted 475 executives, of which 51 senior vice presidents were promoted to executive vice president, 93 vice presidents to senior vice president, and the rest to vice president.

The latest reshuffle also includes the largest number of promotions for foreign and female officials, standing at 12 and 15, respectively, and 85 officials granted with early promotions.

“The reshuffle was conducted, as usual, based on the company’s rule of rewarding those who have achieved high performance,” the conglomerate said in a statement.

Among the 15 women who were promoted was Samsung Card’s first female senior vice president. The rest were promoted to vice president posts.

Samsung Electronics presence was once again the source of many of the promotions, with about half of the executives hailing from the electronics firm, which has raked in the highest profit this year of all Samsung subsidiaries.

The annual shakeup came on the heels of Monday’s reshuffling of the top brass. Out of the eight presidents who were promoted, five work for Samsung Electronics, reflecting Samsung’s determination to put the company in the lead and urge other subsidiaries to follow suit.

Among the foreign executives on in the promotion list, Wang Tong, senior vice president at Samsung Telecommunication Research Center, is the second foreign official to take an executive vice president post at the conglomerate, following Tim Baxter of Samsung Electronics America last year.

The Chinese senior official is credited with taking a critical role in developing Samsung Electronics’ 22 mobile phones sold in China.

“Samsung’s philosophy of personnel management is focused on performance, not on nationality nor ethnicity,” said an official from the Korean conglomerate, adding, “The increase of promotions for foreign executives is in line with an effort to present a future vision for overseas executives.”

Other conditions such as gender were not considered in the promotions either, according to Samsung.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)