Samsung Biologics on Tuesday appointed John Rim as the new chief executive officer to replace former-CEO Kim Tae-han.

Kim’s departure from Samsung Biologics comes nearly 10 years after the company’s foundation in 2011.

The new CEO Rim is a Korean American with 34 years of experience working for global pharmaceutical firms such as Yamanouchi, Genentech and Roche, where he had been chief financial officer.

Rim has been with Samsung Biologics since 2018, where his first role was as executive vice president. His responsibilities had included overseeing the operations of Samsung Biologics' then-biggest facility plant 3 and investor relations.

Rim’s connections from his years at Japanese, European and American companies could bring Samsung Biologics closer to foreign clients, who account for a majority of its business.

In an interview with The Korea Herald in San Francisco in January during the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Rim referred to former-CEO Kim as “a leader that I can learn from” and part of the reason he had chosen to work for Samsung Biologics despite having only lived in Korea for a combined 10 years his whole life.

Under the former-CEO Kim’s drive, Samsung Biologics grew exponentially in its first 10 years to become a company valued at 56.3 trillion won ($52 billion), as of the day of Kim’s stepping down.

Kim’s legacy lies with Samsung Biologics’ world-class 364,000-liter production capacity across its three plants in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea.

A fourth “super plant” equipped with 256,000-liter facility is under construction for a proposed completion in 2023.

Rim, who is now taking the baton, had been full of zeal for Samsung Biologics when speaking to this paper in January.

In regards to the company’s role in bulldozing the road for Korea’s biologics frontier, Rim had said, “Samsung is starting up a whole new industry (biologics) and I could be part of that, and help Korea evolve in to the next generation.”

“When you’re starting a new industry, you write it up as well. (Biologics) could be a great potential for Koran economy but also for the future of young Koreans,” Rim said.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)