Samsung Appoints New Mobile Chief, Roh Tae-moon

Samsung Electronics the world's top smartphone maker, said on Monday that it has named President Roh Tae-moon as its new mobile chief as part of a management shake-up.

Roh, at 51, is the youngest president at Samsung, championed Samsung's strategic shift to outsource more phones to Chinese and other companies, to cut costs and to better compete with cheaper Chinese rivals like Huawei, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters.

As former mobile development head, he led development of Samsung's Galaxy mobile devices, and is expected to invigorate the organisation at a time when smartphone competition is heating up, the company said in a statement.

Former mobile chief DJ Koh will continue to lead Samsung's IT & mobile communications (IM) division, which includes both mobile devices and network equipment.

The company also promoted its network business chief Cheun Kyung-whoon to president, it said in a statement.

Samsung Electronics has been pouring resources into its telecom network equipment business, aiming to capitalise on the security fears hobbling Huawei, its bigger rival.

Huawei is battling allegations by the United States and some other Western countries that its equipment could enable Chinese spying and should not be used in 5G networks, which will offer higher speeds and a host of new services.

© Thomson Reuters 2020