Samsung Electronics co-CEO dead at 63

Hang Jong-hee Dies of Heart Attack

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that co-CEO Han Jong-hee died after suffering a heart attack at the age of 63.

In addition to being vice-chair and CEO of Samsung, Han was also in charge of its consumer electronics and mobile devices division. Han joined the company nearly 40 years ago, and became vice-chair and CEO of Samsung in 2022. The newly appointed Jun Young-hyun, will take his place as the Samsung Electronics co-CEO. Jun has been appointed as the head of the memory chip arm of the company. His appointment took place just last week ahead of the shareholders meeting.

Lagging in the Global Market

Samsung has been lagging behind rivals in the global AI market such as SK Hynix and HBM chips. In a shareholder meeting lastweek, Han apologised for the recent stock performance. Apple has overtaken Samsung as the top seller of smartphones as well.

Only time will tell what the impact of Han’s death and the appointment of Jun Young-hyun as Samsung Electronics co-CEO will have on Samsung’s business strategy. His death comes just ahead of an event for new home appliances that was scheduled for Wednesday.

A Difficult Year Ahead

At a meeting with investors last week, Han said the company would respond to Trump’s tariffs with its global supply chain.

Shareholders grilled Han and other investors about Samsung’s poor performance in the stock market last year. They claimed that the company failed to ride the AI boom. In semiconductors, the company is also lagging behind companies like SK Hynix and Nvidia in the production of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips.

Some sources say that Samsung is looking to expand its presence into the automotive electronics market to promote new growth.

Development in China

Samsung’s chairman Jay Y. Lee is in China this week to attend the China Development Forum, according to posts from Chinese social media. Samsung has not commented on Lee’s trip.