Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong has been nominated as a registered member of the company’s board of directors, marking an important a step forward in taking over the company’s leadership from his ailing father Lee Kun-hee. 

Samsung Electronics convened a board of directors meeting on Sept. 12 and approved the naming of Vice Chairman Lee as a boardroom member. They also approved the spinning off of the printing business.

Vice Chairman Lee will be officially elected at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting slated for October. 

Vice Chairman Lee’s nomination of a boardroom member came as the Korean electronics giant was grappling with the fallout from the massive recall of the latest Galaxy Note 7 due to faulty batteries. 

In an electronic filing, Samsung Electronics said, “It is getting more important than ever to make brave and fast investments to ramp up competitiveness in a rapidly changing IT business environment and make strategic decision-making in a long-term perspective of securing mid-and long-term growth engines.”

The board of directors has been seeking Vice Chairman Lee’s appointment as a registered boardroom member, judging that now is the time for Lee to play a more active part as a member of the board. 

It said Vice Chairman Lee has accumulated a wide range of experience in overall management as chief operating officer, and he has proved that he has what it takes as an executive by leading a turnaround in the company’s performance and restructuring, despite two years of business difficulties caused by the absence of the ailing Chairman Lee Kun-hee.

The board agreed to a consensus that it cannot put on hold Vice Chairman Lee’s appointment as a boardroom member at a time when the company needs to make massive and swift investments to secure future growth amidst the endlessly changing IT business environment and continue to implement restructuring and innovate corporate culture. If Vice Chairman Lee is elected as a board member, the board said, he will do his best in performing responsibilities and duties and contribute ramping up Samsung Electronics’ global standing and corporate value. 

Chief Financial Officer Lee Sang-hoon will step down from the board to maintain the board’s current structure of four members from management and five outside directors. 

The board also decided to hand over the printing solution business to the global industry leader HPI. Samsung Electronics will spin off the printing business as a subsidiary on Nov. 11 before a 100 percent stake in the subsidiary is handed over.

With Vice Chairman Lee’s nomination as a registered board member, Samsung Electronics rebounded in hopes that he can address the fallout caused by the Galaxy Note 7 crisis. 

Samsung Electronics surged 4.23 percent to close at 1,527,000 won on Sept. 13, overcoming a 6.98 percent dive the previous day. The company rebounded to a range of 1.5 million won per share, as buying orders flooded into counters of overseas securities companies, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Samsung Electronics’ preferred stock surge 6.71 percent, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung SDI, the parts suppliers of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, jumped 2.1 percent and 1.45 percent, respectively. 

Words have surfaced on the stock market that Vice Chairman Lee would attempt to cope with the current crisis the way he usually does, with responsible management, and finally succeed in picking up the pieces. Lee was seen carrying his Galaxy Note 7 smartphone while coming to work on Sept. 21 when Samsung Electronics held a CEOs’ meeting on Wednesdays.  

The fallout from the massive recall of Galaxy Note 7 may be subsiding as Samsung Electronics has acted swiftly in taking the decision to replace all 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7s on the market. Many pundits say the crisis will not last for long.

Vice Chairman Lee toured India and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Sept. 15 to discuss the company’s business situation in India. It was Lee’s first official activity since he was nominated as a board member of Samsung Electronics.