Samsung Electronics America names new CEO

Samsung Electronics America's new CEO, Yangkyu Kim.

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung Electronics America's leadership was shuffled a bit today.

The company's outgoing president and CEO, C.S. Choi, will be heading to Samsung's global headquarters in Korea to become a special advisor to CEO G.S. Choi (no relation). In his place, Samsung is sending Yangkyu Kim to its America division to become the new president and CEO. He will oversee operations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Kim is a long-time veteran of Samsung, serving the company for 24 years. He was most recently the senior vice president and head of global sales and marketing for the Visual Display Business at Samsung headquarters. He has also been the president of Samsung Electronics Philippines and Samsung Electronics France.

Given Kim's history in the HDTV market, Samsung Electronics America should make him feel right at home. The company sells televisions, Blu-ray players, and several other products across North America.

When it comes to TVs, Kim has been handed a strong, but tenuous position in the U.S. marketplace.

During the third-quarter of 2010, Samsung was able to lead all other vendors in the U.S. with a 19.3 percent market share. Vizio was behind with 17 percent market share. However, Samsung trailed Vizio in the LCD space, nabbing 17.7 percent share, compared to Vizio's 19.9 percent market ownership. All told, Samsung shipped 1.8 million TVs to the U.S. during the third quarter.

via news.cnet.com