Han Jong-Hee, the co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics and a nearly four-decade veteran of the South Korean consumer technology giant, died on Tuesday.
Mr. Han, who was 63, suffered a sudden heart attack, according to a company spokeswoman.
Mr. Han had shared chief executive duties with the head of Samsung’s semiconductor business since 2022, and was also a member of the board. He had run Samsung’s consumer electronics business since 2021 and a year later added the digital appliance operation to his brief. Previously he oversaw the group that makes the visual displays for Samsung’s wide variety of electronic devices.
Mr. Han joined Samsung in 1988 after graduating from Inha University in Incheon, South Korea, with a degree in electrical engineering. He joined Samsung shortly after the death of its founder, Lee Byung-chull, during a pivotal period in the company’s history.
Mr. Lee’s son and successor pushed Samsung relentlessly to weather the technological changes of the 1990s and 2000s to dominate the market for flat-screen displays and mobile phones.
Samsung is the largest and most successful of the conglomerates known as chaebol that transformed South Korea’s economy into a global export powerhouse. Samsung Electronics accounts for a significant portion of the country’s exports. Samsung is one of the most popular brands in the global smartphone market, where it competes with Apple and Xiaomi. It is also the world’s largest maker of memory chips used in everything from electric cars and smart watches to advanced artificial intelligence servers.
Mr. Han is survived by his wife and three children, the company said.
There were no plans in place yet for who would succeed him at Samsung, it added.
