Chief Executive Officer, and Vice Chairman, of tech giant, Samsung Electronics, Oh-Hyun Kwon have announced he is leaving the company in March 2018, blaming it on “unprecedented crisis”
He made this known shortly after posting the company's third quarter financial results.
"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", Mr Kwon said in a statement.
The "unprecedented crisis" is apparently a reference to Samsung Group's de facto leader and Vice Chairman, Lee Jae-yong (aka, Jay Y. Lee) being sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of bribery, embezzlement, capital flight, and perjury charges.
Lee Jae-yong's conviction was part of a bribery scandal that reached all the way to the president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, who was impeached last year is also serving time in prison.
While Lee Kun-hee is expected to keep the title of "Chairman" for life, medical issues have caused him to step away from Samsung, and Lee Jae-yong had been running the company since 2014.