Samsung S1 President Dismissed

Samsung Group dismissed Lee Woo-hee, president of S1 Corporation, Samsung’s janitorial recruiting agency, and its Gangnam branch senior director Choi Hong-seong on October 15. Staff of the janitorial agency have recently been involved in robberies and charged with making false statements.

It is the first time Samsung discharged a president of a subsidiary before its regular management reshuffling in about 40 years.

Samsung Group discharged Lee and Choi by holding them responsible for the misconduct, and said that it appointed Vice President Roh In-shik (56), the group’s Strategic Planning Division HR team leader, as the agency’s chief executive officer on the same day. Roh is likely to be promoted to agency president as early as this year.

A high-level official at Samsung Group said, “President Lee and senior director Choi did not disclose the circumstances early enough, thereby critically tarnishing the group’s image,” adding, “Although President Lee was dismissed in the form of a voluntary dismissal, it is safe to say he was fired.”

Another Samsung official said, “I have heard that Lee Kun-hee, the Samsung Group’s Chairman, was infuriated by Lee’s false statement, calling it, an ‘unforgivable act.’”

On September 9, a janitor robbed two women in their 20s in a house in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu and sexually harassed them. The agency was accused of making a false statement regarding the matter and retrospectively accepting his resignation.

Rumor has it that Lee is a high school senior of former presidential aide Byeon Yang-gyun, and that there may be a link between him, Samsung Electronics, and grants worth 100 million won given to the Sungkok Art Museum where Shin Jeong-ah used to work, according to the prosecution’s investigation.

Meanwhile, the designated president, Roh In-shik, who was named to lead the agency after Lee, graduated from Joong Ang High School in Seoul and majored in law at Sungkyunkwan University, and is known as an expert in HR and education.

As for the HR team director named to lead the Strategic Planning Team, senior director Jeong Yu-seong (51), HR team leader in management support at Samsung Electronics, was appointed, while the group’s senior director Seong In-hee (51) was appointed to the Samsung Electronics’ HR management team chief.

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