The Samsung flag is seen at Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul, Oct. 31, 2024. Newsis

Several high-ranking executives at Samsung Electronics have recently left the company, despite initially joining with high expectations of strengthening future businesses and management practices.

Industry officials are pointing at Samsung's corporate culture and human resources policies, which they believe could hinder the company in the global competition to secure top talent.

Jang Woo-seung, former executive vice president and head of Samsung's Big Data Center, stepped down from his post late last year, according to a JoongAng Ilbo report on Monday. His LinkedIn page shows that he is now an adviser for the company, without any further explanation.

Similarly, Kang Sung-chul, an executive vice president for the robotics business, also left his position around the same time and has since transitioned to an adviser role.

From left are Wei Gu-yeon, a former fellow at Samsung Research, and Jang Woo-seung and Kang Sung-chul, former senior vice presidents of Samsung Electronics, who were recruited in 2019 but recently stepped down. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Wei Gu-yeon, a fellow at Samsung Research's Artificial Intelligence Center, also left the company in early 2024, after leading a team developing next-generation AI processors based on artificial neural networks. His LinkedIn page shows no record of working with Samsung. Wei is now working with Nvidia for a very-large-scale-integration technology as an “academic partner.”

The three made headlines in 2019 when they joined Samsung as top experts who will lead the company's AI, big data and robotics businesses, based on their illustrious academic and career backgrounds.

Wei is a Harvard University professor of electrical engineering and computer science. Samsung named Wei to a fellow position, a first for the company, describing the move as “the highest post of the firm's research sector, to the world's best expert in the field.”

Jang also gained the spotlight when he joined Samsung due to his background as a former senior principal scientist for supply chain optimization technologies at Amazon. Kang is the former head of the Center for Medical Robotics at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of robot engineering in the country.

Korean media outlet Newsis also reported that Samsung's Global Marketing Executive Vice President Lee Ji-byeol, better known as Ji Lee, recently left the company. On his LinkedIn page, Lee wrote “It's time to say goodbye” after two and a half years at Samsung, calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Lee worked for Meta for over 10 years as a creative director, becoming the first to be simultaneously in charge of Facebook product marketing and consumer brand marketing.

Along with them, former TSMC Deputy Director Lin Jing-Cheng left Samsung at the end of last year, two years after joining the company as an executive vice president for advanced chip packaging, without renewing his two-year contract.

Robert Wisniewski, a supercomputer expert who was recruited as senior vice president for Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in 2022, left the position in July 2024 and now works as a chief architect at Hewlett Packard.

An individual enters Samsung Electronics' office in Seocho District, Seoul, Jan. 31. Newsis

Silo effect

Industry officials speculate that the early departures of high-profile experts recruited by Samsung in recent years may be influenced by the company's hypercompetitive corporate culture and human resources policies, which promote internal checks among employees.

“Samsung evaluates everything based on performance, which fosters a strong sense of individualism among employees, particularly executives,” a former Samsung Electronics employee said on the condition of anonymity.

“As an employee rises to higher executive levels, the competition becomes even fiercer, leading to significant internal rivalry. This environment often results in little consideration for other departments.”

Excessive competition between executives has been cited as one of the reasons behind Samsung's recent struggles in the memory chip business. Samsung long maintained its position as the world's top DRAM chipmaker. However, last year its domestic rival, SK hynix, became the world's top supplier of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, one of the most valuable chips in the industry due to its utilization in AI accelerators.

Experts argue that Samsung's culture of encouraging competition among executives is generating a silo effect, which occurs when teams within an organization work in isolation, leading to poor communication and collaboration across the company. While executives on the development side are rushing to achieve quick results, the production side is putting greater emphasis on stability in mass manufacturing to secure enough yield.

One example that gave the public a glimpse of this company culture is the latest Galaxy S25 smartphone, which used Qualcomm's Snapdragon as its main application processor and Micron's mobile DRAM in its initial supply batch instead of the in-house Exynos application processor and mobile DRAM.

“Unlike in the past, the so-called 'team spirit' seems to have disappeared in Samsung these days,” another former Samsung official said.

“It is common to see performance-based evaluation in other global companies, but the fundamental principle is that they are one team in the end. Of course, the executives who left the company recently had their own reasons, [but] it is also true that there is a prevailing culture of constantly blaming each other in the company, pointing fingers at this side or that side.”

In April last year, Nikkei Asia also reported that Samsung is lagging behind its chip rivals because of its corporate culture, as “Samsung's most senior managers are only granted one-year contracts” and “those unable to produce results within that short amount of time are not renewed.” The report noted that this practice discourages employees from making proposals without an existing precedent.

A Samsung insider also said that one of the possible solutions to many of the company's recent difficulties is refurbishing its human resources policy, which discourages fresh ideas and innovations amid hypercompetitive corporate culture.

In October, a labor union of five Samsung affiliates sent a letter to Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong, stating, “There is virtually no merit for promotions or compensation, and many employees are struggling to find reasons to work, under the current human resources policy.”

According to data by Korea CXO Institute, 6,459 employees left Samsung Electronics in 2024, an increase from 6,359 in 2023 and 6,189 in 2022.