Samsung Electronics CEO Kwon Oh-hyun has resigned following the imprisonment of the heir to the entire Samsung group, Lee Jae-yong, for corruption in August, but his action came on the day the company forecast record quarterly profits.
Kwon said he had been thinking about his departure “for quite some time” and could “no longer put it off.”
“As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company to start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry,” he said.
In August, the group’s heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong was convicted of bribery and corruption and sentenced to five years in jail.
Samsung said its operating profit in the three months to the end of September is expected to triple to more than US$12.8 billion.
