Samsung replaces CEOs of financial units

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance CEO nominee Hong Won-hak, left, and Samsung Asset Management CEO nominee Seo Bong-kyun / Courtesy of each company

By Park Jae-hyuk

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Executive Vice President Hong Won-hak was named the insurer's new CEO, while Samsung Securities Sales & Trading Division Head Seo Bong-kyun was recommended to lead Samsung Asset Management, the companies said Friday.

Samsung Card CEO Kim Dae-hwan, who was promoted to “president” from “vice president” the same day, retained his position. Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Securities also kept their CEOs unchanged.

All of the five major financial units of Samsung were initially expected to allow their chief executives to continue their duties, considering their earnings performances throughout this year.

Samsung Fire and Samsung Asset, however, eventually decided to bring a generational shift to their leadership, respectively, as Samsung Electronics did during its year-end reshuffle earlier this week, in line with Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's latest intention to create a “New Samsung.” His vision features a corporate restructuring plan aimed at paving the way for young, talented workers to move up the promotional ladder faster regardless of their rank or age.

On a related note, current Samsung Fire CEO Choi Young-moo and Samsung Asset CEO Shim Jong-keug reportedly decided to step down in spite of their remaining terms, to give greater opportunities to younger executives.

According to Samsung Fire, its 57-year-old CEO nominee joined Samsung Life in 1990 and has developed expertise in the insurance business by working for both of Samsung's life and non-life insurance units. He also served as a Samsung Electronics executive in charge of business strategies.

“We expect Hong to enable the qualitative growth of Samsung Fire, marking its 70th anniversary next year, improving its competitiveness,” a Samsung Fire official said.

Samsung Asset's CEO nominee, who was born in 1967, built most of his career at foreign investment banks, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

He joined Samsung Securities in late 2019, and has led the brokerage's asset management business.

“As an expert in asset management, who has worked in the industry for about 30 years, Seo will help Samsung Asset solidify its leading status in the domestic ETF market and expand its global presence,” a Samsung Asset official said.

Their appointments will be finalized after the forthcoming meetings of each company's board of directors and shareholders. Samsung's financial units will also announce a reshuffle of its lower-level executives in the near future.