This is the first in a two-part series about a transition expected at the top of Samsung Group. ― ED.
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Who is helping Lee Jae-yong, the senior vice president of Samsung Electronics, widely believed as the successor to the ailing leader of Korea's business empire?
For Lee Kun-hee, the former chairman who still maintains remote control of the chaebol conglomerate, it was Lee Hak-soo, who is said to have wielded great influence behind the scenes.
But he is cashing in on his multi-billion-won stock options. In a generational shift, others are moving in on the front. They are JY's men. A public face to JY's coterie is Rhee In-yong, vice president of the group's communications team.
On the top of the still-short list of JY's coterie is Choi Gee-sung, now one of two CEOs for Samsung Electronics, who is in charge of consumer electronics.
The other is Lee Yoon-woo, a CEO who acts as a leader for the company but lacks the close ties to JY enjoyed by Choi. Two other Chois (not related by family ties) are also regarded as JY men.
"Choi Gee-sung, Choi Doh-seok and Choi Joo-hyun or 'The Three Chois' form the vanguard of JY's men," a high-ranking Samsung source told The Korea Times. All three have expertise in finance.
Choi Gee-sung is credited with guiding Samsung's television business to its No. 1 position in global market share. Since last year, he has been leading Samsung Electronics' consumer products division, which is in charge of making mobile phones, MP3 players and other smaller devices.
In 2007, Choi, who majored in international business at Seoul National University (SNU), was tasked with turning around the struggling mobile phone operations as head of the telecommunications unit.
"Choi Gee-sung is well known as a 'task-master,''' a Samsung official said. His influence is illustrated by the fact that he is leading Samsung's most important business ― LED TV.
"Choi is now considered the leading candidate to become the next CEO of Samsung Electronics," the executive said.
Samsung Card CEO Choi Doh-seok is another JY man with a 30-year career spent in finance and accounting for the group.
Doh-seok is the former chief financial officer (CFO) of Samsung Electronics, having joined Cheil Industries ― the group's textile affiliate ― in 1975 after majoring in business management at Yonsei University. He was transferred to Samsung Electronics in 1981 and is a veteran in reading and interpreting Samsung Group cash flows.
The last of the three "Chois" ― Joo-hyun ― is the CEO of Samsung Everland. He worked as the top auditor at the now-defunct Samsung Planning Office, the group's nerve center that controls affiliates.
"The chief executive position at Samsung Everland is highly important, considering its role as a virtual holding company," the source told the newspaper.
The second-tiered group in the JY coterie includes Yoon Soon-bong, CEO of the group's petrochemical unit; Chang Won-kie, the head of LCD business; Samsung Electronics' former IR chief Chu Woo-sik and Bae Ho-won, CEO of the group's fine chemicals unit.
Currently, Samsung Electronics is led by Vice Chairman Lee Yoon-woo ― but industry watchers and many analysts don't believe that Lee belongs to the JY group.
"Lee Yoon-woo, who is aged over 60, is playing a role as coordinator," Song Myung-sup, an analyst at CJ Investment & Securities, said.
"Lee Yoon-woo could be a benchwarmer for the junior Lee. He will help lay some groundwork for a more sustainable management system to make the group's electronics unit independent from other group affiliates," an official at the Center for Good Corporate Governance said on condition of anonymity.
The 41-year-old Jae-yong got an MBA at Japan's Keio University and studied at Harvard Business School, and is still in the process of learning Samsung Group's key businesses guided by Lee Yoon-woo and Choi Gee-sung.
Recently, the junior Lee has been expanding his overseas experience by meeting with Samsung Electronics' key clients ― Sony, AT&T and Toshiba.
With the help of the "two-tops," Jae-yong inspected the situation at the electronics unit's overseas affiliates in the former Soviet bloc countries, as well as in Russia, Japan and the United States.