South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group is considering adding female independent directors after the U.S. activist investor Elliott Management Corp. pointed out lack of gender diversity as problem in the boardroom of Samsung Electronics Co. in a letter it sent to the company on October 5.

According to a source from the industry on Monday, Samsung Group’s Future Strategy Office has done studies on how many outside board members each of its units has, their field of expertise, cause for appointment and tenure.

The group is reported to have particularly focused on promoting gender balance on the board. The U.S. fund said in the letter that Samsung Electronics’ boardroom seriously lacks diversity as all of the five independent directors are male. The world’s largest smartphone maker had appointed its first female independent director Kim Eun-mi, Ewha Women’s University professor in 2013, but she was replaced by Park Jae-wan, Sungkyunkwan University professor after her term expired early this year.

Samsung’s global smartphone and chip making rivals such as Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), on the other hand, have more highly professional independent directors who are diverse in gender, the hedge fund also pointed out.

The tech behemoth revised articles of association in the beginning of the year to let independent directors become the chairman of the board as part of efforts to tackle the rigidity of its boardroom, the source said. “The male-dominant board is another issue that the company should address,” he added.

Among 15 listed companies of Samsung Group, only three - Samsung C&T Corp., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co. and Samsung Card Co. have female outside directors, accounting for just five percent.

In order to have a more gender-balanced boardroom, the company must wait until 2018 or increase seats for outside members because there is no independent board member whose term expires before March 2018.

By Lee Seung-hoon

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