Samsung appoints new head to lead its Visual Display (VD) Business

Samsung's new head of the Visual Display (VD) business is President Won-Jin Lee, who helped establish the company's TV and mobile service businesses.

David Uzondu Neowin · May 4, 2026 05:28 EDT with 1 comment

Samsung has announced a new head of its Visual Display (VD) Business in a surprise mid-year reshuffle on May 4, 2026, appointing marketing veteran President Won-Jin Lee. According to the Korean tech giant, President Seok Woo Yong, who used to lead the division, will now serve as an advisor to the Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division.

Unlike the previous heads of the VD business who often came from hardware backgrounds, Lee is widely seen as a heavyweight expert in marketing, digital advertising, content, and platform services. Before this new role, he served as the President and Head of Samsung's Global Marketing Office.

Lee is the guy behind Samsung TV Plus, the company's surprisingly successful streaming platform. He joined Samsung back in 2014 after a high-profile career that included founding Google Korea and becoming the first Korean Vice President at Google's global headquarters. He is directly credited with creating the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service that turned Samsung's smart TVs into a source of recurring revenue.

The Visual Display Business Lee is set to take over is a core unit within the company's Device eXperience (DX) division. This is the part of Samsung responsible for creating things like Samsung's televisions (including its premium Neo QLED, OLED, lifestyle, and Micro LED TVs), gaming monitors, commercial digital signage, and audio products.

In its most recent earnings call for the First Quarter (Q1) of 2026, Samsung recorded solid, if not spectacular, results for this consumer-facing unit. The combined Visual Display and Digital Appliances (VD/DA) divisions reported a consolidated revenue of 14.3 trillion Korean won (approx. $10.4 billion) and an operating profit of 0.2 trillion Korean won (approx. $145 million).

Other important highlights from Samsung's April 30 report include its semiconductor division, which generated a massive 53.7 trillion won (approx. $36.5 billion) operating profit thanks to the AI boom. The Mobile eXperience division's profit fell to 2.8 trillion won (approx. $1.9 billion), squeezed by rising component costs. Samsung's total operating profit for the quarter hit a record 57.2 trillion won (approx. $38.8 billion).