Seoul, Oct 13 (AP) The chairman of Samsung ElectronicsCo.'s board of directors, who has been the public face of thecompany after its de facto chief was jailed on corruptioncharges, said today he will resign next year to make way for anew leader.
"As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis insideout, I believe that time has now come for the company to startanew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respondto challenges arising in the rapidly changing IT industry,"Kwon Oh-hyun, 65, said in a letter to employees.
Kwon plans to resign as head of Samsung's semiconductorand component business and will not seek re-election on thecompany's board when his term expires in March, Samsung saidin a statement.
He has represented Samsung Electronics at variousoccasions since the company's heir and vice chairman, LeeJae-yong, 49, was jailed earlier this year. Lee was convictedon corruption charges to five years in prison in August, alongwith four other former Samsung executives.
Samsung has two other CEOs, each overseeing its mobilephone business and home appliance division.
But the chip and display divisions led by Kwon fueledSamsung's stunning profit growth this year.
Earlier today, Samsung said its July-September operatingprofit nearly tripled over a year earlier to a new record,putting it on track to report its best annual financialresults.
Analysts forecast Samsung's 2017 net income nearlydoubled from 2016 and they expect Samsung to outdo its annualfinancial results for the next few years, thanks to itsposition as the world's largest maker of the semiconductorgroup known as memory chips that are used for mobile devicesand computer servers.
Kwon, however, thinks Samsung is in crisis and urgentlyneeds to find new ways to fuel growth before the record-breaking performance resulting from earlier decisions fades.
"Now, the company needs a new leader more than ever andit is time for me to move to the next chapter of my life,"Kwon said.
In its earnings preview, Samsung put its July-Septemberoperating profit at 14.5 trillion won (USD 12.8 billion),compared with 5.2 trillion won (USD 4.6 billion) a yearearlier. Sales jumped 30 per cent to 62 trillion won ($54.7billion).
Prices of memory chips have skyrocketed globally due tothe growing use of social media, mobile data, cloud computingand the emerging internet of things, which have combined toleave supplies tight.
The boom allowed Samsung to dethrone Intel Corp., thelong-time global chip leader, in the second quarter and hasyielded record earnings for smaller chip rivals such as SKHynix.
Kwon's resignation could widen a leadership vacuum atSamsung.
The company has a league of executives who manage day-to-day operations, but has usually relied on the leadershipand the visions of founding family members for direction.
Kwon is chairman of Samsung's board, but not its overallchairman. That is Lee Kun-hee, son of the company's founderand Lee Jae-yong's father. The younger Lee has sought to fillhis father's place as the company's since Lee Kun-hee washospitalized in 2014.
Lee is appealing a five-year prison sentence for crimesrelated to a sweeping corruption scandal that toppled SouthKorea's president.
Hearings on his appeal and those of four other convictedSamsung executives began yesterday. (AP)CHT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.