Died, This Is The Heritage And Death Guarantee Left By Samsung CEO Han Jong-hee

JAKARTA - Samsung Electronics announced that CEO Han Jong-hee died on Tuesday from a heart attack.

With Han's departure, Jun Young-hyun, who was recently appointed co-CEO at the company's annual shareholder meeting last week, is now the only CEO to lead the South Korean tech giant.

Jun was previously promoted in 2024 to lead Samsung's underdeveloped semiconductor division of major competitors such as SK Hynix and TSMC in the global artificial intelligence chip market.

63-year-old Han, has served as CEO of Samsung since 2022 and is also responsible for the consumer electronics and mobile device division.

Meanwhile, Han Jong-hee joined Samsung in 1988 after completing a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Inha University.

Han's performance in Samsung Electronics has been going on for three decades, starting in 1988 as a member of the Development Team in the Video Division and becoming Head of Development Group 2 in 2009. Then becoming the head of the R&D Product Team, Visual Display Business from 2011 to 2013.

Han was then promoted to become a Visual Display Business Department in 2017 before being elected as Deputy Chair and CEO in 2021.

On the other hand, he left a wife and children. And according to analyticsinsight.net, Han's net worth is around 971,291 US dollars or around Rp. 16 billion as of November 30, 2024. In addition, there is a death penalty that reaches 4.83 million US dollars or around Rp. 78 billion.

Meanwhile, his departure left many questions regarding the continuation of the company's business strategy, especially related to the chip market which is facing major challenges.

Previously, the company's division was divided between the two CEOs, with Han in charge of the consumer electronics division and mobile devices, while Jun led the semiconductor division.

Samsung confirmed in a filing to the stock exchange that Jun Young-hyun will be the company's sole CEO after Han's death. Samsung's shares fell by 0.5 percent in line with South Korea's broader stock market decline.

Over the past few quarters, Samsung has experienced a decline in performance and falling share prices due to lag behind competitors in developing state-of-the-art memory chips and contract chip manufacturing, which is experiencing strong demand thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

In addition, Samsung also lost its top position in the smartphone market which is now controlled by Apple. Han, who is also a member of the Samsung council, died in hospital on Tuesday while being treated for a heart attack.

Samsung said that they had not yet decided who would replace Han in the company structure which is usually divided between the two CEOs, with one CEO in charge of the consumer division and another for the chip division.

Han, who joined Samsung almost 40 years ago, is known as an important figure behind the global success of the Samsung television business.

He became CEO of the company in 2022 and during his tenure, he also played a role in efforts to overhaul Samsung's business strategy, especially in facing chip market challenges, which are declining in performance.

One analyst said that the sudden loss of Han could have a significant impact on Samsung's business strategy, particularly in the marketing sector.

In addition to the challenges in the semiconductor division, Han's absence also has the potential to affect Samsung's efforts to improve the performance of the home appliances division and will affect Samsung's steps in dealing with uncertainty regarding global tariffs and rising trade wars.

In a shareholder meeting that took place last week, Han publicly apologized for the poor performance of the company's shares and informed investors that 2025 would be a difficult year for the company.

Han also revealed that Samsung will respond flexibly to the tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump, which affects the global supply chain and the company's manufacturing footprint.

He acknowledged that Samsung has not been able to take advantage of the semiconductor sector, which left Samsung lagging behind SK Hynix in the development of the high bandwidth memory chip (HBM) used by Nvidia and other companies for AI graphic processing units.

"We sincerely apologize for the performance of stocks that do not meet your expectations. Over the past year, we have failed to respond to the rapidly growing AI semiconductor market," Han said at the meeting.

Jun Young-hyun, who is now Samsung's only CEO, is expected to direct the company to face tough challenges ahead.

One of the efforts predicted to be the main focus is expanding Samsung's presence in the automotive electronics market, which is seen as a new growth opportunity.

Meanwhile, despite being in the midst of global economic uncertainty, the company is still working to improve the performance of the household electronics division and continue to innovate in other technology sectors.

On the same occasion, Samsung Chairman, Jay Y. Lee, who is currently in China to attend the Chinese Development Forum, visited a Xiaomi car factory in Beijing and BYD's head office in Shenzhen.

Even so, Samsung refused to comment further on Lee's trip to China.

Lee himself is facing various lawsuits and scandals related to the succession of the Samsung conglomerate. Although he was acquitted of charges related to the succession case in February, prosecutors have appealed against the decision, which adds to the burden on the company's leaders amid an uncertain situation.

With Han Jong-hee's death and major changes in leadership structure, Samsung is now facing a challenging future in the face of global market uncertainty and internal company problems.