Samsung Electronics' head of management strategy at its Device Solutions (DS) unit, which oversees the chip business, Kim Yong-kwan (김용관), has been nominated as a new director. The timing of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong's return as a registered executive remains undecided again.

Samsung Electronics said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it will hold its 57th annual general meeting of shareholders on March 18 at the Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

The meeting is set to vote on agenda items including the appointment of outside directors, approval of financial statements, approval of the limit on directors' compensation, and partial changes to the articles of incorporation.

Kim has served as head of the support team at the memory business division and head of the planning team at the DS unit. He later held roles including executive in charge of the management diagnosis team at the Future Strategy Office and executive in charge of the business support task force. He has worked at the DS unit since 2024.

Samsung Electronics said Kim has contributed to boosting corporate value by broadly supporting business across management support and by playing a role in external cooperation and communication based on his understanding of the chip business and global capabilities. It also said he led order negotiations to run the Taylor plant in the United States and produced results by securing long-term contracts.

It said he has had a positive influence by communicating directly with major investors to build trust in Samsung semiconductors at overseas investor relations meetings in the United States, Britain and Singapore. It also assessed that he has leadership that can accept chip-related internal and external requests and coordinate them reasonably.

The meeting will also put on the agenda the appointment of Seoul National University professor Huh Eun-nyoung (허은녕) to the audit committee.

Huh has served as a professor at Seoul National University's College of Engineering since 1996. She has served as a private-sector member of the National Economy Advisory Council, vice president of the International Association for Energy Economics and president of the Korean Resource Economics Association, and currently holds roles including full member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and head of the Korea Energy Law Research Institute.

The proposal to appoint Chairman Lee as an inside director was not included again. Some in the business community also projected that Lee would return as an inside director after the Supreme Court last year confirmed his acquittal in a case related to allegations of an illegal succession of management control.

An analysis says Lee has been further strengthening accountable management by broadening his global business steps and pursuing large mergers and acquisitions, and that he has not been able to easily decide the timing of a return as an inside director amid an uncertain domestic and overseas business environment.

An agenda item will be put forward to raise the total limit on directors' compensation to 45.0 billion won this year from 36.0 billion won last year.

Ahead of the implementation of the revised Commercial Act in September this year, an agenda item to introduce cumulative voting will also be put forward.

Cumulative voting is a system designed to protect the rights of minority shareholders. When appointing two or more directors, it grants voting rights per share equal to the number of directors to be elected and allows votes to be concentrated on a single candidate.

(Yonhap News Agency)