SK recruits software expert hailing from Samsung

SK Group reportedly recruited on Friday Lee Ho-soo, an advisor to Samsung Electronics and software expert, as its chief technology advisor (president level) in a bid to boost its competitiveness in information and communication technology.

The recruitment has been reportedly spearheaded by Lim Hyeong-goo, former head (president) of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, who joined SK in January this year as head (vice chairman) of the ICT technology and growth initiative under the SK Supex Council, the highest decision-making body of the group.

SK’s new chief technology advisor Lee will work at the special committee on ICT technology growth under the Supex Council beginning next month. Rather than taking charge of business affairs at the level of affiliates such as SK Hynix or SK Telecom, he will work to formulate ICT business strategy at the group level and discover new businesses jointly with Vice Chairman Lim.

Before joining as the software center chief at Samsung Electronics in 2006, Lee had worked for IBM in the U.S. At Samsung Electronics, Lee served as the founding head of the Media Solution Center in charge of software and service development from 2008 to 2012.

Insiders in the business community interpret the recruitment of Lee as SK’s bid to concentrate its group-wide capacity on ICT business beginning next year, ahead of personnel and organizational reshuffle at SK at the end of this year. Vice Chairman Lim will reportedly seek to draw a big picture comprehensively encompassing ICT strategy next year, rather than focusing on the semiconductor business as he has done this year.

At a CEO seminar held last month, SK shared a message that calls for an extensive business reshuffle and the discovery of new growth engines through proactive investment in businesses that have generated new achievements, in order to overcome the crisis.