[Han Industry Brain Talent Shortage] Top Executives Personally Engage in Recruiting Global Talent

Samsung Lee Jae-yong, LG Koo Kwang-mo, SK Chey Tae-won Lead Talent Search in Future Industries

Seunghyun Jun, head of Samsung Research, is delivering a welcome speech at the 'Samsung Software Developer Conference' on November 18 last year. (Photo by Samsung Electronics) [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyeyoung] To secure key talent for future growth industries, domestic companies have become so fierce that not only CEOs but also the heads of conglomerates themselves have directly entered the competition. This is based on the judgment that the development of cutting-edge technology and all processes to realize it ultimately depend on ‘people.’ Major domestic companies such as Samsung, LG, and SK are no exception. They are making every effort, including establishing dedicated teams to respond in order to secure superior talent compared to competitors and to prevent losing talent to rivals.

A representative case is President Sebastian Seung (Korean name Seung Hyunjun), who is currently the head of Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics’ integrated research organization, and is drawing the blueprint for the new Samsung. At the time, he was a professor at Princeton University in the U.S., and his decision to join Samsung Electronics reflected the strong recruitment will of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

Since resuming management activities in 2018, Vice Chairman Lee has traveled overseas to North America and Europe, meeting global scholars to exchange opinions on future technologies and personally engaging in recruiting key talents in related fields, putting great effort into this.

President Seung was the first figure recruited after Vice Chairman Lee announced the ‘New Samsung Vision.’ In addition to President Seung, Vice Chairman Lee continuously meets with world-renowned scholars in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), which the group is focusing on, either by inviting them or visiting overseas, playing a key role in Samsung’s talent acquisition.

Lee Hong-rak, Chief AI Scientist (CSAI) at LG AI Research Institute (Photo by LG)

LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, who has taken the lead in securing the AI ecosystem, has also put great effort into talent acquisition. In 2020, LG announced the establishment of an AI research institute and an investment of about 200 billion won, officially recruiting Professor Lee Hong-rak from the University of Michigan, a former Google researcher regarded as a world-class scholar in the AI field.

LG was the first in the industry to create the ‘C-level’ AI Scientist position and promised exceptional treatment and compensation systems to attract top global AI talent, countering global competitors. Chairman Koo personally led the entire process and even went out with LG Electronics executives to find global talent.

At the launch of the AI research institute, Chairman Koo emphasized, "I will support and encourage the gathering of the best talents and partners to freely challenge the world’s difficult problems and develop into the center of the global AI ecosystem."

Kim Young-han, CEO of Gauss Labs (Photo by SK Group)

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won also rolled up his sleeves early to secure talent. Chairman Chey established the AI research and development (R&D) company Gauss Labs in Silicon Valley, USA, appointing Professor Kim Young-han as its head. Professor Kim is a fellow member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a world-renowned data science expert. Through Professor Kim, SK Group is sparing no support for research on AI-based semiconductor manufacturing process innovation and simultaneously exploring the ‘post-semiconductor’ sector.

When SK Hynix achieved record-high sales of 43 trillion won last year, it was also reported that Chairman Chey’s strong intention was reflected in the recruitment of President Lee Seok-hee. President Lee is a ‘star engineer’ who worked for 10 years at Intel, a dominant player in the global semiconductor market, and received the Intel Achievement Award (IAA), given to top engineers, three times. To avoid losing him while he was serving as a professor at KAIST, Chairman Chey and SK Group executives made special efforts and succeeded in recruiting him.

The competition for talent among these companies is expected to accelerate further as the scale of advanced industries grows. According to the Korea Employers Federation, information and communication industries and professional, scientific, and technical services are commonly analyzed as the top three high-wage industries in Korea, Japan, and the European Union (EU). Especially in Korea, which suffers from chronic talent shortages, the average monthly wage in the scientific and technical services and information and communication industries is about $5,755 (approximately 6.9 million won), and it is expected to rise further as competition for talent intensifies among companies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.