Samsung Names Younghee Lee As First Woman President: Report

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has named Younghee Lee as its first woman president while announcing it will retain the positions of its two current CEOs.

The new Samsung Electronics president was instrumental in promoting Samsung's Galaxy smartphone brand.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has named Younghee Lee as its first woman president while announcing it will retain the positions of its two current CEOs, the media has reported. Younghee Lee was named the global market officer of Samsung's Device Experience division or DX division. She has been known as a marketing expert and was previously associated with L'Oreal, before joining Samsung in 2007.

The new Samsung Electronics president was instrumental in promoting Samsung's Galaxy smartphone brand when the smartphone maker's mobile business was fast-rising in the smartphone sector starting in the early 2010s under the leadership of then-CEO JK Shin, a report by ZDNet said.

She is also the first female president at Samsung, South Korea's biggest conglomerate, to come from outside the founding family. President is the highest executive position within the electronic maker only behind the chief executive officer and vice chairman.

The smartphone major expected the promotion to serve as a chance for other talented female employees to challenge themselves to climb career ladders, a report by Korean news agency Yonhap said. She is among seven new presidents, part of a small-scale corporate reshuffle conducted for the first time since the group's de facto leader Lee Jae-yong was promoted to executive chairman of the company in October.

Samsung did not appoint a new head for its home appliance unit, a position that has been vacant since Lee Jae-seung resigned in October for undisclosed "personal reasons." Han Jong-hee, vice chair and co-CEO at Samsung, will continue to assume the additional duty following Lee's departure for the time being, Samsung has reportedly said.

Samsung's new woman president's appointment comes ahead of the launch of the much-anticipated Galaxy S23 lineup. Samsung is likely to officially unveil the Galaxy S23 series at its first Unpacked event in the first week of February, a report by GSMArena said recently, citing a Korean publication which quoted a Samsung executive with knowledge of the matter. The Galaxy S23 series will be then launched globally later in February after the official reveal at Unpacked.

It should be noted that some leaks and rumours have pointed to a Galaxy announcement at CES 2023 in January, but since it has that has never been Samsung's usual venue for the unveiling of the Galaxy S series, thus, indicating that the Galaxy S23 series may not be unveiled that CES 2023. It should also be noted that the Samsung Galaxy S23 series are expected to be all Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered, dropping Samsung's proprietary Exynos chipset completely. The Xiaomi 13 lineup is also expected to launch with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.