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Director Choi Gee-sung (left) and deputy director Jang Choong-ki of the Samsung Group’s Future Strategy Office

Director Choi Gee-sung and deputy director Jang Choong-ki of the Samsung Group’s Future Strategy Office (FSO) are stepping down from the management front lines sometime around next week.

Samsung plans to announce reform plans, including the dissolution of its “control tower” with the FSO and measures for stronger management transparency, when the final findings of the investigative team led by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo come out in early March.

“Now that the FSO is going away, [group vice chairman] Choi and [president-executive board] Jang are stepping down from their positions,” said a group source.

“While they are leaving the front lines of management, they could take on advisor or permanent advisor roles,” the source added.

While Choi and Jang’s departure appears to be the result of the FSO’s dissolution taking away their positions, it is also being seen as a gesture of responsibility following the arrest of group head and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on bribery charges. Choi, who has been called Samsung’s second-in-command, has been leading the FSO since 2012 after previous stints as Samsung Electronics CEO and vice chairman. Jang has been in charge of external business duties for the group.

In addition to its role in group appointments, planning, and affiliate coordination, the FSO has also been a driving force in paving the way for Lee to assume group management duties.

After allegations of illegal lobbying of the National Pension Service and Fair Trade Commission during this process, Lee pledged to dissolve the FSO at a National Assembly hearing on the Choi Sun-sil government interference scandal last December. Samsung dissolved its Strategic Planning Office at the time of a 2008 special prosecutor’s slush fund investigation, with then vice chairman Lee Hak-soo and president Kim In-joo both stepping down from the management front lines.

Samsung said it does not plan to form a committee or other organization to take the FSO’s place.

“We’re going to be following an autonomous management approach based on each company’s CEO and board,” said a Samsung source. FSO employees are to return to their original companies, including Samsung Electronics.

In a plan presented the same day for “increased transparency in external support management,” Samsung Electronics said it would establish preliminary “review meetings” when spending money for support, with the board of directors auditing committee reviewing the management situation and spending performance on a quarterly basis.

“This is a measure to increase support money management transparency and strengthen law-abiding management by requiring voting from the board, where outside directors represent the majority,” Samsung Electronics explained.

In the past, Samsung Electronics has only required board decisions for donations representing 0.5% or more of equity capital (680 billion won/US$601 million), or 5 billion won (US$4.4 million) in cases of special relationships.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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