Samsung promotes two senior executives from India team

Korean mobile phone and electronics maker Samsung has promoted two senior executives from its India team ahead of a possible bigger change next month when Korean companies typically change the roles of their management team.

Asim Warsi, who was senior vice president for the mobile phone business heading product planning and marketing, has now been designated as global vice president and Dipesh Shah, who was the managing director of Samsung Research and Development Institute in Bengaluru, is now made global senior vice president. However, both the executives will continue to be based out of India as part of the Indian leadership team.

The changes in designation could be a precursor to more changes coming at a time when third-party market researchers have revealed that Samsung’s dominance in the mobile phone market is under threat from Chinese rival Xiaomi. A recent report by IDC said both Samsung and Xiaomi are tied at the top spot in the Indian smartphone market with 23.5% share during July-September quarter.

Warsi has been with Samsung for 12 years handling the mobile phone business and was recently also given charge to develop an e-commerce strategy across products both in terms of product portfolio and sales.

Shah has been with Samsung for over two decades and been with the company’s research institute in India since the first day. The Bengaluru research facility is the largest for Samsung outside Korea. Shah leads the ‘make for India’ initiative at Samsung which involves rolling out products developed specifically for the local market apart from developing unique mobile applications and localising global ones like Samsung Pay and Bixby for India.