By Kang Seung-woo
Samsung Group is expected to conduct a long-delayed reshuffle of its executives this month, according to industry sources, Monday.
The nation’s largest conglomerate usually does it at the end of every year starting with the replacement of top brass, but it skipped it last December due to the independent counsel’s investigation into Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
The Samsung heir is behind bars because of his involvement in the corruption scandal that removed former President Park Geun-hye from office in March.
Plus, Samsung dismantled the Future Strategy Office in February in the wake of the scandal, further delaying a reshuffle. The office served as a control tower of the group.
“A reshuffle of executives can be manageable within each affiliate although one for chief executives would be difficult for now. In addition, there are many opinions inside the group that a reshuffle cannot be further postponed,” a source said.
Samsung only carried out a shakeup of non-executive employees on March 1. In addition, only two new CEOs were appointed in a partial reshuffle in its efforts to recover from the humiliating recall of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones last year and regain consumer confidence. They were Samsung SDI CEO Jun Young-hyun and CEO Kim Jong-ho of Samsung Electronics’ quality control office.
Also, there is growing speculation that the top management reshuffle will come after the lower court verdict on Lee, most probably in August.
However, Samsung rejected the speculation, saying it is not the right time to do so in consideration of issues surrounding the group.
It also said that after the breakup of the Future Strategy Office, each unit has been operating on its own, so they will carry out their own internal reshuffles if necessary.