Samsung Group to reshuffle management this month

SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top business group Samsung said Wednesday
it will reshuffle its management this month in the first executive shake-up since
the departure of its charismatic former chairman Lee Kun-hee.

The 67-year-old Lee, who had been at the helm of Samsung for two decades, stepped
down in April last year in the wake of a parliament-ordered corruption probe that
led to his indictment for tax evasion and other charges.
In October, an appellate court upheld a lower court's decision to give Lee a
three-year suspended jail term.
Since Lee's resignation, Samsung has held weekly meetings of chief executives
from its affiliates to discuss and coordinate key issues.
Samsung's acting Chairman Lee Soo-bin, chief of Samsung Life Insurance Co., said
the group set up a committee to conduct the reshuffle by the end of this month.
The two Lees are not related.
"As the global financial crisis sparked an economic contagion worldwide, Samsung
-- as well as the South Korean economy -- is facing a more serious ordeal than it
experienced in the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis," a senior Samsung official
quoted the acting chairman as saying.
"It's time for all Samsung CEOs to take the lead to overcome the current crisis."
The Samsung Group consists of 59 affiliates, including Samsung Electronics Co.,
the world's largest maker of computer memory chips. The conglomerate accounts for
about 20 percent of South Korea's annual exports.
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