Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Leadership History
4 leaders · 2022 to present
Jun Young-hyun and Roh Tae-moon is the CEO of Samsung, in the role since 2025. The first chief executive was Jong-Hee Han, from 2022.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roh Tae-moon (TM Roh) | Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device eXperience | 2025 | Present | 1 |
| Jun Young-hyun | Vice Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device Solutions | 2024 | Present | 2 |
| Jong-Hee Han | Vice Chairman and CEO | 2022 | 2025 | 3 |
| Jay Y. Lee | Executive Chairman | 2022 | Present | 4 |
Samsung Electronics, based in Suwon, is the flagship company of the Samsung Group and South Korea's most valuable listed company. It is the world's largest memory chipmaker and one of the two largest smartphone vendors. Its market value passed $1 trillion in May 2026 and was about $1.33 trillion in late September 2026, after its shares more than tripled in a year on AI memory demand. The company is led by co-CEOs Jun Young-hyun (semiconductors) and TM Roh (devices), with Jay Y. Lee as Executive Chairman. The company is headquartered in Suwon, South Korea.
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device eXperience
2025 – Present
1 year (current)
Roh pushed the aggressive commercialization of foldable smartphones, making Samsung the dominant early market leader in the category.
As head of the MX (Mobile eXperience) division, he heavily integrated AI features (Galaxy AI) into the S-series flagship phones to combat Apple's dominance in the premium tier.
Vice Chairman, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Head of Device Solutions
2024 – Present
2 years (current)
Jun was appointed to lead the Device Solutions division to urgently address Samsung's lagging position in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips for AI.
He implemented a complete overhaul of the semiconductor division's engineering processes, issuing a rare public apology in 2024 for the company's technological delays.
Vice Chairman and CEO
2022 – 2025
3 years
Led the combined Device eXperience (DX) division covering mobile, TVs and appliances, and pushed SmartThings connectivity and premium products such as Neo QLED TVs and Bespoke appliances.
A longtime TV business leader who helped keep Samsung the top global TV brand. He died suddenly in March 2025 while in office.
Executive Chairman
2022 – Present
4 years (current)
Backed large semiconductor investments in Pyeongtaek and Taylor, Texas, and reshuffled chip leadership in 2024 to address Samsung's lag in HBM.
Grandson of the founder and son of Lee Kun-hee. He was convicted in the 2017 bribery case and pardoned in 2022, and became Executive Chairman in October 2022. In 2025 the Supreme Court upheld his acquittal in the separate merger and accounting fraud case.
Samsung faces memory cyclicality, SK hynix competition in HBM, TSMC leadership in advanced foundry, Apple and Chinese smartphone competition, appliance margin pressure, labor and governance scrutiny, and geopolitical exposure across Korea, China, the United States, and global chip supply chains.
Jay Y. Lee (Lee Jae-yong) has served as Executive Chairman of Samsung Electronics since October 27, 2022, serving as the supreme leader of the company and the broader Samsung Group.
Jay Y. Lee earned a bachelor's degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University, a master's in business administration from Keio University in Japan, and completed doctoral coursework at Harvard Business School before formally joining Samsung in 1991.
Lee Kun-hee served as Chairman of Samsung from 1987 until his incapacitation in 2014 (passing away in October 2020). He transformed Samsung from a cheap OEM copycat manufacturer into a globally revered technological titan through his obsessive pursuit of product quality, the Frankfurt Declaration, and semiconductor boldness.
Samsung operates under a dual-CEO / division head structure: Han Jong-hee serves as Vice Chairman and CEO overseeing the Device eXperience (DX) consumer division, while Jun Young-hyun serves as Vice Chairman and Head of the Device Solutions (DS) semiconductor division.
In May 2024, amid fierce competitive pressure in High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from rival SK Hynix, Samsung made an emergency leadership change, appointing semiconductor veteran Jun Young-hyun (former CEO of Samsung SDI) to restore technological discipline and memory execution.
Jay Y. Lee was entangled in South Korea's 2016 presidential influence-peddling scandal, spending time in prison before receiving a presidential pardon in August 2022 to assist national economic recovery and semiconductor competitiveness.
Jay Y. Lee is consistently ranked as the wealthiest person in South Korea, with an estimated net worth between $9 billion and $12 billion, derived primarily from his equity stakes in Samsung Electronics, Samsung C&T, and Samsung Life Insurance.
Following Chairman Lee Kun-hee's death in 2020, the Lee family faced an unprecedented inheritance tax bill exceeding KRW 12 trillion ($10.8 billion)—one of the largest in global history—paying it in annual installments over five years financed through stock dividends, personal loans, and donating thousands of cultural masterworks.
In 2020, Samsung established the independent Samsung Compliance Committee, headed by prominent former Supreme Court justices, ensuring external judicial oversight of executive board decisions and preventing political interference.
In a historic public apology in May 2020, Jay Y. Lee pledged that he will not pass management control of Samsung to his children, ending three generations of hereditary chaebol succession in favor of professional corporate stewardship.
The board consists of inside executive directors (Han Jong-hee, Jun Young-hyun) and a majority of independent outside directors (including former university presidents, financial experts, and former government ministers) led by Board Chairman Kim Han-jo.
Jay Y. Lee champions "Semiconductor Vision 2030"—an ambitious initiative committing over $115 billion to make Samsung the undisputed world leader not only in memory chips, but also in contract foundry logic microchips and AI systems.
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