One of the co-CEOs of Samsung Electronics has died of a heart attack.
Han Jong-hee, 63, passed away in hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Han joined Samsung out of university 40 years ago and took over its visual display R&D business in 2011.
One of four executive directors on the company’s board, he was named chief executive in 2022 and in charge of its consumer electronics and mobile devices division.
Just last week he apologised to shareholders in South Korea’s biggest company for its failure to capitalise on the boom for semiconductor chips driven by AI.
“First and foremost, I sincerely apologise for the recent stock performance not meeting your expectations. Over the past year, our company failed to adequately respond to the rapidly evolving AI semiconductor market,” he said.
Samsung also saw Apple surpass its smartphone sales last year, while it is facing 25% tariffs on products shipped from its production base in Mexico to the United States due to President Trump’s trade wars.
Jun Young-hyun, appointed co-CEO just last week and in charge of its semiconductor division, is solely in charge of the tech giant for now.