Samsung Group promoted Chairman Lee Kun-hee's younger daughter on Wednesday in its latest management overhaul to tighten the founding family's grip over South Korea's largest business conglomerate.
Lee Seo-hyun, 37, also a granddaughter of the group's founder, was promoted one level to executive vice president of Cheil Industries Inc., Samsung's textile unit, and Cheil Worldwide Inc., its advertising and marketing arm, the group said in a statement.
The younger Lee was one of 490 executives at numerous affiliates who were promoted in the group's largest ever reshuffle. Her husband Kim Jae-youl was also promoted to executive vice president at Cheil Industries.
Her promotion came in the wake of her siblings' ascent to presidency last week, which heralded the start of third-generation management at the group's 67 affiliates that account for one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product.
Her brother Jae-yong, 42, was promoted to president of Samsung Electronics Co. Her sister Boo-jin, 40, was named president and chief
executive of the group's hotel unit, president of Samsung Everland Inc., the group's de facto holding company, and an advisor to the trading division of Samsung C&T Corp., the group's trading and construction company.
"Reflecting the group's record performance even in unfavorable conditions at home and abroad ... the promotion was conducted at a record scale of 490 people," the statement said.
The group's flagship unit, Samsung Electronics, which emerged from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed and posted forecast-beating earnings this year, rewarded 231 executives with promotions.
The annual management reshuffle is the first conducted since Lee Kun-hee, the group founder's son, returned to management in March after being granted a special presidential pardon over a conviction of tax evasion.
Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chipmaker and the second-biggest mobile phone maker.