A logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its office building in Seoul, Nov. 17. Newsis

Samsung Electronics carried out its year-end executive reshuffle, placing a strong emphasis on a generational shift to broaden the pool of potential candidates for the company's future leadership as it navigates ongoing management challenges, the company said Friday.

The electronics giant prioritized promoting younger officials to executive-level positions, seeking to inject new energy and drive growth while addressing its uncertain outlook for management.

A total of 137 officials were promoted to executive positions under Samsung's merit-based evaluation system. However, this marks a 4.2 percent decrease compared to 2023, continuing a downward trend for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2021, Samsung promoted 214 officials to executive positions, but this number steadily decreased in the following years. The company chose to reduce the number of promotions this year in response to declining revenues at its core semiconductor business, which has been a key driver of profits.

Ha Ji-hoon, 39, made headlines as the youngest official promoted to vice president. Ha is a software engineer at the firm's device experience division. The company also named eight executive vice presidents in their 40s.

"We placed a strategic focus on selecting talented officials, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), sixth-generation network and next-generation chip technologies, so we can tackle the uncertain management environment with a bold and challenging spirit," an official at the company said.

The firm also promoted 35 vice presidents to executive vice presidents during the latest reshuffle. Park Jeong-ho, the new executive vice president at the firm, was recognized for driving his leadership in software development at the device experience division. He is a telecommunication expert, having driven key projects by using AI-powered next-generation network technologies.

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S24 flagship smartphones are on display at a store in Seoul, Jan. 18. Korea Times photo by Park Si-mon

Kim Sang-ha, who led generative AI and neural machine translation projects at the company, was promoted to vice president. He was recognized for his role in helping Samsung launch the world's first AI-powered smartphone, the Galaxy S24, this year. The flagship model achieved significant success, securing a spot on the list of the top 10 best-selling smartphones globally for three consecutive quarters — a first since 2018, according to data from market tracker Counterpoint Research.

Samsung Electronics also ramped up its efforts to build a more innovative and horizontal organizational structure by appointing a group of women and foreign executives regardless of gender and nationality, according to the company.

They include Sitthichoke Nopchinabutr, the new vice president in charge of handling sales in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Former Samsung Electronics Executive Vice President Yoon Jang-hyun was also appointed as Samsung Venture Investment's next CEO during the latest reshuffle. Yoon joined Samsung Electronics in 2003 and has since handled key tasks in the firm's mobile and software teams.

"Samsung Electronics is expected to ensure the sustainable growth of our key businesses and bolster next-generation growth engines through the latest promotion of executives," the Samsung official said.