Samsung Electronics CEO Han Jong-hee died of a heart attack on Tuesday, the company said.
Han had been with Samsung since 1988 and built his career in the television division. The company said he was most responsible for taking Samsung TV to the “top of the global market.”
He became CEO in 2022 and was also in charge of the consumer electronics and mobile device divisions.
Samsung remains dominated by the Samsung family, with Lee Jae-yong as the third-generation leader and current head of its flagship subsidiary Samsung Electronics.
The South Korean tech giant said in a stock exchange filing that Jun Young-hyun would now be the sole CEO. The company traditionally has a co-CEO structure, to which Jun was appointed only last week.
The news comes as Samsung struggles with its memory chip business. It lags behind rivals such as SK Hynix and TSMC in the global market for artificial intelligence chips, DW reports.
In October, Samsung said questions had arisen about its fundamental technological competitiveness and the company’s future. At a shareholder meeting last week, Han and other top executives told investors they expected 2025 to be a difficult year.
