South Korea’s Samsung C&T Corp. has promoted Lee Jae-eon, vice president of the trading division, to president. Along with the promotion, he was nominated as chief executive officer of the company’s trading division.

Samsung C&T announced its regular executive appointments for 2024 on Tuesday, including Lee’s promotion.

Lee was born in 1968 and graduated from Sogang University with a major in chemical engineering. He joined Samsung C&T in 1992 and has held various executive positions, including head of the Vietnam business, head of the Japan business, and head of materials business. After being promoted to vice president two years ago, he has served as head of the planning team and head of the new business team for the past year.

Lee’s promotion will be confirmed at Samsung C&T’s shareholder meeting and board meeting scheduled for 2024.

Once confirmed, Lee is expected to take the lead in exploring new growth drivers centered on eco-friendly businesses with the country’s trading industry venturing into new businesses beyond traditional trading activities, such as renewable energy development, in recent years.

Samsung C&T is actively responding to changes in the business environment of the trading industry by exploring new business opportunities and securing technologies in promising industries.

Since becoming the first company in the Korean industry to declare itself coal-free in 2020, the company has strengthened its portfolio in eco-friendly businesses, including renewable energy. When Lee, who was the head of the new business team for the past year, is confirmed as the CEO of the trading division, the company is expected to exert more efforts to secure new growth drivers.

One of the most notable achievements in Samsung C&T’s new businesses is in solar power development. The company acts as a business developer for the construction of solar power plants and produces and sells intangible assets, or ‘solar business rights,’ with the cumulative gain from sales of these rights topping $100 million to date. The company has also secured projects for solar and energy storage systems (ESS) development totaling 16.4 gigawatts (GW) in advanced renewable energy markets such as the United States and Australia, and plans to expand this capacity to 25GW by 2025.

By Kim Hee-su and Yoon Yeon-hae

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