HB Lee to head Samsung’s South West Asian HQ

NEW DELHI: Samsung has appointed HB Lee as its new head for its South West Asia regional headquarter. Mr Lee would be based in India. A senior executive in the Korean electronics giant, he is currently the global head of the appliances business and would be taking over his new responsibilities next month. This comes at a time when Samsung globally has just effected a large-scale reshuffle of executive portfolios.

In his role as regional president & CEO of Samsung southwest Asia, Mr Lee will oversee the operations of all the existing Samsung subsidiaries in India. These include the consumer durable company, Samsung India Electronics, the telecom company, Samsung Telecommunications India, apart from Samsung���s research & development (R&D) centre based in Bangalore, Samsung India Software Operations. It was in 2004 that Samsung had made India the regional headquarter for the SAARC region with KS Kim as the first head. He was succeeded by SH Oh, who was appointed as the president & CEO of Samsung southwest Asia in February 2005. Thereafter, the telecom business was spun off as a separate subsidiary.

Until now Mr Oh was not responsible for the telecom and software operations in India. In the new structure these two businesses would also be reporting to the new regional chief, Mr Lee. Mr Oh will continue in India as the president & CEO of Samsung Electronics India and would now report to Mr Lee, who will also be based in India.

Mr Lee who will be shifting from South Korea to the Indian office, is an old Samsung hand having spent 31 years at Samsung Electronics. In the past, he had also worked as the managing director of Samsung subsidiaries in Germany and Spain apart from handling Samsung���s domestic sales business in Korea. For the past two years, he has been the president of Samsung Electronics��� Digital Appliance Business.