November 23, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] David Eun, president of Samsung NEXT, an investment arm of Samsung Electronics in Silicon Valley, has been appointed as chief innovation officer, according the tech giant on June 5.

Under the newly created title, Eun pledged that he would try to find next steps for the tech behemoth’s future growth.

“As CIO, one of the things I will be increasingly focused on is trying to develop a vision for what Samsung Electronics could be five years from now and beyond,” he said in an in-house interview posted on Samsung NEXT’s webpage.

“The other thing we want to do is to deepen our relationship and interactions with leaders and other businesses, engineering schools and organizations that are also thinking like us.”

As CIO, he is expected to expand investments in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.

Since taking the helm of the investment unit in 2013, Eun has played a critical role in a number of successful investments in some 60 startups in a range of sectors including Internet of Things, augmented reality and AI.

Among the investments is the acquisition of mobile commerce payment firm LoopPay, whose solutions became the basis of Samsung Pay for the Korean tech firm’s Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung also invested in self-driving startup nuTonomy in the past, which was acquired by UK automotive parts company Delphi in 2017.

“The appointment is aimed at putting more focus on speeding up the pace of innovation by empowering Eun in seeking new business opportunities,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Investor.

In a media interview early this month, Eun said that AI is changing the entire business landscape, and companies should transform themselves into AI-centered firms. 

“In line with the ongoing change, Samsung Next, an investment firm that is as agile as a startup, is increasing investments in the software and AI segments,” he said.

Before joining Samsung, Eun served as a content partnership executive at Google where he led the takeover of YouTube. He also used to work for AOL as content chief.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)