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By Baek Byung-yeul
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Red Hat, Workday and other overseas-based IT companies are facing a leadership vacuum here as they are having a hard time filling vacant country manager positions of their Korean units, according to company officials Tuesday.
Though the Korean branches refused to reveal any details about the situation, an industry official said leadership changes at foreign firms usually occur when their parent companies have not satisfied business performance requirements at overseas offices.
"As seen in many other companies, leadership changes at overseas IT firms happen frequently for different reasons. But the main causes stem from lackluster business performance," the official said.
AWS Korea's managing director Jang Jung-wook abruptly left his post in July only about a year after he was named the new head of Amazon's cloud computing business here in June 2018.
Jang's resignations came to surface after he updated his Linkedin profile. A representative of AWS Korea confirmed that Jang has left his post but declined to provide any details.
Red Hat, a U.S.-based Linux and cloud technology vendor, is also looking for a new head of its Korean unit for months after Hahm Jae-kyung, who led the company since 2013, recently left his post. The company was famously acquired by IT giant IBM for $34 billion in 2018.
A Red Hat Korea official confirmed that Hahm left the company in August and Jin Jae-hyung, head of enterprise sales, is currently serving as acting CEO. "Hahm left Red Hat Korea in August and we are looking for a new head of the Korean unit," the company official said.
Workday, a U.S.-based human resource management service provider, is also seeking a new country manager for its Korean unit as Sean H. Lee recently resigned from the chief post.
When the company entered the Korean market in February 2018, Workday appointed Lee as a country manager. Lee previously worked at multinational IT firms including Samsung Electronics, Oracle and SAP.
"Lee left the company for personal reasons and the company is looking for a replacement," an industry official said adding Rob Wells, president of Workday in Asia, is currently in charge of the Korean unit.
While several foreign IT firms are looking for new heads of their Korean branches, there are some companies that are not undergoing a regime change.
One of the most notable examples would be Kevin Kim, who has been leading the Korean unit of a U.S.-based IT service company Dell Technologies. Kim, who had led EMC Korea since 2003, has been serving as a chief of Dell Technologies Korea since EMC merged with Dell in 2016.
Recognized for his business ability and leadership, Kim was also appointed as a senior vice president of Dell Technologies in May, which is rare for Asia-based executives.
Ham Ki-ho, who had led Hewlett Packard (HP) Korea since 2007, is also keeping his chief position at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Korea despite the storage system and software provider splitting from HP in 2015.
