Kwang-kee Park

President, Samsung Electronics Africa

The world’s largest electronics company has set its sights on the burgeoning African consumer market. At the Samsung Africa Forum, a flashy five-day conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in May, Park Kwang-kee unveiled Samsung’s strategy for the continent.

In Africa, Park anticipates a US$10 billion market for Samsung’s televisions and mobile handsets by 2015 – the size of China’s market. Of particular interest will be the technology transfer that Samsung promises. The company will create a research and development centre at Strathmore University in Nairobi and add new assembly plants to those in Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Senegal. It will also partner with local universities – including Strathmore, again, and the University of Cape Town – to create electronic engineering training centres; Samsung plans to develop 10,000 electronics engineers in Africa by 2015.

As President of Samsung Africa, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, since January 2010, Park brings long experience in emerging markets. From 1991 to 1995, he handled Samsung’s consumer electronics marketing for Southeast Asia from Thailand, and ran Samsung’s business operations at its regional headquarters in Singapore from 1999 to 2003.

After a brief spell as Vice-President of Global Human Resources at Samsung’s Seoul headquarters, he became Managing Director of Thai Samsung Electronics, from 2006 to 2009. Park holds a degree in economics from Kyungpook National University in Daegun, South Korea, and a master’s degree in management from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University.